I have a decision to make....
Previous employer insurance coverage ended 8/31. I received my COBRA sign up information today. I have until 10/31 to make an election. My new employer insurance starts 10/1.

I was going to elect COBRA for the month of September figuring it was going to be around $500 - $800....well, it's $3,000!! My view is that I can pay for any necessary prescriptions, etc out of pocket and if something worse or more expensive pops up...I can then elect COBRA and get the coverage as it goes retroactive to Sep 1.

Am I crazy for not electing COBRA now? I know my wife is going to be stressed "not being covered".

Laid off on July 14.
I didn't even bother pricing COBRA because I knew that despite a robust emergency fund and whatever UE would send me I would not be able to afford it.

I stumbled upon an ad on LinkedIn and figured what the heck. The guy got back with me very quickly. He gave me several options, including the faith based (though we didn't do a specific quote there). What he was recommending was a Bridge plan through United.

It has a $3,000 deductible and mine comes out to about $350 a month. It's good for as long as the deductible lasts. So whenever I use up the deductible no new claims go through. I need to re-read how that would handle something that becomes long term if (forbid) i were to say get cancer before regaining employment.

You should definitely wait until October and see if anything happens between now and then before you elect it.

If you just like lighting $3,000 on fire, I can send you my address. Don't overthink this. It's a no brainer.

Was in a similar situation and went with Weshare. Was about $950/month for a family of 4, however, you are more then likely taking on more risk compared to continuing your employer plan under cobra. Just be aware of the details. Thankfully was only on it for a month before landing another gig. Good luck!

Superfreak said:

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You have 8 weeks from cobra eligibility to sign up and it's retroactive. If something major happens you are still covered as long as you pay past premiums.

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This is my understanding as well. It's retroactive so you can sign up for it after the fact if you need it. I went a month without coverage when I retired before getting set up with ACA.

As previously stated don't do anything now and try to keep medical costs low for September until you get on new employers insurance. If something bad happens medically in the meantime, you can enroll retroactively in COBRA.

Now to add something new to be aware of, do NOT trust your company's benefits rep especially in how it relates to insurance. You will need to verify everything they say, even if it means looping in the insurance carrier while they are on the phone. After I retired, I had so many issues of benefit reps telling me one thing and finding out it wasn't true at all. Even to the point of opening several tickets for the same issue and them closing them as resolved. Even had their best rep assigned to me to 'fix the noise'. After several phone calls with them and separately calling insurance company directly and not getting the same answer I had the rep loop in insurance company. After the insurance company told the rep what I had been telling them for six weeks, the rep finally apologized and said they did not know. This is a $150 bln company.

Good luck with new job.

GasAg90 said:

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As previously stated don't do anything now and try to keep medical costs low for September until you get on new employers insurance. If something bad happens medically in the meantime, you can enroll retroactively in COBRA.

Now to add something new to be aware of, do NOT trust your company's benefits rep especially in how it relates to insurance. You will need to verify everything they say, even if it means looping in the insurance carrier while they are on the phone. After I retired, I had so many issues of benefit reps telling me one thing and finding out it wasn't true at all. Even to the point of opening several tickets for the same issue and them closing them as resolved. Even had their best rep assigned to me to 'fix the noise'. After several phone calls with them and separately calling insurance company directly and not getting the same answer I had the rep loop in insurance company. After the insurance company told the rep what I had been telling them for six weeks, the rep finally apologized and said they did not know. This is a $150 bln company.

Good luck with new job.

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Absolutely this. The best and brightest do not work in HR never mind the general bureaucracy you will run up against in any large company. I've had to run basic benefits tasks up the pole to a Director in the past simply because the lower levels just didn't know what they were doing.

I'm in an interesting situation right now.

Laid off June 1 but had insurance through June 30 (company sponsored HSA).

Did not elect COBRA to save the big premium for my family of 4 and in hopes that I would find a new job before the 8/31 60-day deadline to retroactively buy COBRA if we needed it for something really big.

No job yet. 8/31 is gone, but we have $2,200 in our HSA account that we think should cover us until I find a new job.

Rather nervous right now but glad I did the HSA for the first time ever to start 2026.

HSA's are awesome. Hang in there.