Reply With QuoteFrom personal experience, COBRA is outrageously expensive. I paid over 1200/month for family health only in 2004. I know it varies by company but don't even want to imagine what the cost would be now. My experience: when I left the job, the hospital's insurance had like 30 days to send me the COBRA info, then I had around 30 days to accept or decline and had to pay the catch-up premiums up front. Problem is, while you're doing all that paperwork, you're not covered by insurance until after the premium is paid, etc... But when all that's done, it would be retroactive. So if you had an emergency appy or something two weeks after you left the job, when the hospital checked, the company would show at that time that you're not covered. It doesn't say that cobra is pending. And the same thing with getting prescriptions filled- you'd pay full cost up front and then submit for reimbursement when all the paperwork went through. It was a real pain in the neck. And if you don't accept COBRA within your window of opportunity, you're out. By the time you get through all the red tape, it's about time for your new insurance to be in effect. But who can go without health insurance, even for a few months? If it's just you and you're healthy, maybe one of those injury-type policies might work for a month or two- I'm no expert. But I have had the cobra experience, and it wasn't pretty. Check with your HR- it may be better now.
