Update: thanks for all the encouragement. Looks like this was caught early so I am fairly optimistic about the outlook, just wish it didn't need to affect others around me as I face it.
I should note that I haven't actually signed up for insurance at my new employer yet, as that's typically done after the first day. And my old employers' coverage ends on the 31st. I'm going to check out Cobra to tide me over. Does anyone have an opinion on the prospect of sticking with Cobra and perhaps asking my new employer to help out with the premium versus being on their health insurance?
If I did need to eventually transfer to their insurance I think new Healthcare Laws would mean I couldn't be denied coverage due to pre-existing condition. I'll do some digging.
And btw fiancé has been helping from the beginning and we are dealing with this together -- she's a keeper.
No, do not do the COBRA thing. Opt in to your employer's group coverage. COBRA expires. You are not responsible for optimizing your employer's health insurance premiums and will probably have far less of an impact on them than you're worrying about.
Don't listen to this. Don't let yourself have any gap in coverage and if the new plan isn't as generous with the coverage then it may pay to cover the COBRA premiums and use your old insurance as the primary.
There will be a gap between quitting and getting the paperwork and mailing in your premium. They will reactivate your old insurance retroactive but that's something to be aware of.
Don't get on COBRA with a plan to stay on it, I think you're saying, and I agree.
If your new employer doesn't offer health care, go buy some: switching jobs is a "qualifying life event" and lets you buy outside the yearly sign-up window.
If they do offer health care, then you're set. Wait for that. This one-week gap isn't going to mean anything or change anything.
Yeah, I could have been clearer about this. At 18 employees, his new employer surely offers group coverage (if they didn't, he shouldn't work there regardless of whether he's dealing with an illness). And of course, if temporary COBRA coverage is the only way to ensure he has no coverage gap, he should make use of COBRA as well.
Just don't do COBRA as an alternative to the employer's group plan.
It's easy to misread tptacek's comment, I'm pretty sure he's saying "get COBRA as needed to cover a gap, but don't stay on COBRA instead of your new employer's policy."
Staying on COBRA would likely suck, even if your new employer kicked in something to cover it. COBRA can be remarkably expensive, and anything extra the new company paid you would also be taxable income in ways that employer subsidized plans wouldn't along with being awkward if you later signed up ("Lump, we're cutting your pay since you're getting onto our insurance now.").
I'll note that once the ACA plans became available, coverage for my wife and I (on a pretty good Gold plan with no subsidy) was somewhere around 60% of the cost of COBRA for the two of us from her previous job - and the ACA plan wasn't an HMO or anything like that, it was a standard PPO with a decent network.
Delaying a change to the new employer's plan would likely not fly - much like the exchanges, you have two times you're eligible to sign up: during the open enrollment period, and after qualifying events such as a change of employment or marriage. If you bypass the new employer's plan, you're stuck until (most likely) January, 2016 after an open enrollment period in November/December.
I should note that I haven't actually signed up for insurance at my new employer yet, as that's typically done after the first day. And my old employers' coverage ends on the 31st. I'm going to check out Cobra to tide me over. Does anyone have an opinion on the prospect of sticking with Cobra and perhaps asking my new employer to help out with the premium versus being on their health insurance? If I did need to eventually transfer to their insurance I think new Healthcare Laws would mean I couldn't be denied coverage due to pre-existing condition. I'll do some digging.
And btw fiancé has been helping from the beginning and we are dealing with this together -- she's a keeper.