My husband and I were offered COBRA through his prior company. However, we had decided to obtain individual health insurance due to the lower price. We applied and were approved for an individual policy but it has a $ 6,000 deductible and doesn't cover many things.

We are now reconsidering and thinking that we should have put me on COBRA because we are considering an infertility treatment which would make pregnancy a possibility and the individual plan does not cover maternity.
We still have a few days left in which we could elect COBRA coverage for just myself.

So there are a few questions:

1.) Can I still elect COBRA now even though I have this other individual plan in place?

2.) If yes, do I need to cancel the individual plan or can I just keep it active (it was a very time consuming process getting approved for it and I would not want to go through that again). The monthly premium is low so I would just as soon keep it since I doubt I would stay on COBRA for long.

3.) It would be helpful if we had some more time to figure out what we want to do. If I elect COBRA, I see I then have 45 days to make the first payment. If I decide by that time that I do not want the COBRA coverage, what happens if I just don't pay the backdated premium bill? Will they still require payment or just cancel coverage?

Please advise. Thanks.

Yes you may have more than one policy, actually with one policy in a high deductable, it is often common to stack policies at times

And of course the reason it is low is it has a high deductable of course

Basically your cobra will or should pay first, and your individual plan will pay ( after its deductable) items not pay by the first policy for covered items.

You will have to pay cobra from the date you became due, you have to pay the back premuim or they willl merely not accept you for coverage.

As long as your election period hasn't expired you can still elect it.

I retired 9/1/08 and opted for COBRA health insurance. I believe that if yoy decline COBRA when you leave a company you cannot subsequently opt to pick up COBRA coverage. A call to your husband's prior company's HR dept. should clear up the matter.

MOST IMPORTANT: You (or your husband) should contact the employer to see if your COBRA election period is active or if it has expired.

Answer to 1: See Most Important; if the answer is your election period has expired you will not be able to obtain COBRA. If your election period has not expired, you need to elect quickly and MAKE CERTAIN that the former Employer received the request. You certainly can keep your individual plan. It is likely that the group plan will pay primary and the individual plan be secondary (also known as Coordination of Benefits).

2. Under the group plan from the former Employer, there may be some infertility treatments that are not covered. You should have (or you may need to get) a copy of the plan documents (certificate of coverage booklet) from HR and be sure that the group plan covers it BEFORE you have the treatment rendered - unless of course you have made provisions for the treatment if the insurance plan wouldn't cover it.

3. If you choose to elect COBRA keep in mind that your coverage will not be reinstated until AFTER the first month's premium has been received. If you are using the 45 days to solidify your decision of going back to the group plan, and then decide that you don't want it, can't afford to pay the back premiums, or whatever - you have lost your window into your continuation of your health benefis if you do not make your 1st month's premium. If by an off-chance that you were reactivated prior to your sending in your 1st month's premium, AND you waited until day 31 or 32 to send in your check, you can expect to see all claim payments reversed and the providers you used will rebill all services to you directly.

A thought: If you are the only recipient to the infertility treatment, you may want to consider yourself for the COBRA election. You should contact the HR dept at the former employer and ask what the single rate would be if only you were to enroll.

I am not an attorney and the information contained in this post should not be construed as legal advice.