An apparatus and method determines soft handover in a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) mobile communication system supporting a Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS) service. In the CDMA mobile communication system supporting an MBMS service, when a User Equipment (UE) moves to a region where it can receive data from a plurality of Node Bs, the UE determines by itself whether to perform soft combining on MBMS data received from the Node Bs. Therefore, even though an MBMS user moves from an existing cell to a new cell, the MBMS service is stably provided, contributing to the convenience of the user.