Short-term or gap health insurance: How and where to buy?

My husband's employer paid group health insurance may be terminated this week. I contacted the insurer today and was told that he will likely qualify for continuation of coverage. Unfortunately, the company my husband works for is a disaster and can't be counted on to administer the continuation of coverage paperwork in a timely fashion or administer it at all. How do we avoid a gap in coverage if this happens? Are there any short term, gap or retroactive policies out there?

I've looked into Obamacare and was told that we must file our application between the 1 & 15 of the month. Coverage would then begin July 1, leaving a two week gap. Also, apparently Obamacare will not cover my son because he attends college out of state, so we would have to buy a separate policy for him.

We really like our current insurer and will likely explore private insurance with them at some point.

By the way, the health insurance calendar at my husband's job begins today, so we will find out tomorrow if the group premium has been paid.

Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the long post.

"Obamacare" is private insurance. Go to your current insurer's website to see what individual plans are available. Or use the federal website to see what options you have.

I don't think any current NJ plans cover out of state general care, but they will cover emergencies. Your son's college likely offers some kind of plan that can handle general health care. You might want to check with them.

As far as the gap, I'd be surprised if there were no way to avoid the gap in coverage. You might want to check with @mammabear, who is in the industry.

What about COBRA?

Thanks Particle Man. I've already checked out healthcare.gov and will be pricing out plans tomorrow. I also talked to a customer service rep and apparently the only way to avoid a gap in coverage is if my husband's employer offers continuation of coverage through the month of June. Not sure if this will happen but we'll push for it while I fill out the marketplace application. Luckily, our current insurer offers coverage through the marketplace in New Jersey so we should be able to keep our doctors. Not so luckily, we will likely have to pay an additional $2,000 per year in coverage for our son since he's out of state. All in all, not very affordable given our current income, but at least I have a better understanding of our options.

I think the suggestion above is a good one, to see what might be available on campus. There's probably a student health service that would take care of most needs, I'd imagine?

Hi Tarheels,

The $2,000 is what it costs to purchase the campus plan. Our current plan covers our son and was accepted at his college last year as sufficient. We are likely to lose this plan by the end of the week or month. Marketplace plans on the New Jersey exchange will not cover our son out of state except for emergencies, which is deemed insufficient coverage by his college. So we will probably have to buy two plans. My main concern right now is to have no gaps in coverage. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the group premium is paid tomorrow through the end of the month.