Company bought out, COBRA cancelled retroactively

TLDR my company was acquired by another in August. I joined COBRA immediately, paid my premiums on time etc. However on 10/1 the insurance showed the policy as inactive.

I called the COBRA administrator and they said it shouldn't have happened and they'd fix it. 10/2 I got a notice delivered on the insurance portal, backdated to 9/29, saying the company had terminated the policy. I asked the administrator about it and they were adamant they'd had no notice of that and it was a mistake. Today (5pm on a Friday, what a cliche) I got an email from HR of the acquiring company saying I'm now on their COBRA plan, backdated to 10/1, but they've given me no information about the plan itself or what it will cost for my entire family. All I can see is the benefit to cover me alone.

They want me to sign up for just me, then they'll work out the full premium for my dependents around 2 weeks later, and everything will be backdated to 10/1. Obviously at this point if I want to look for a marketplace plan, I'm going to be uninsured until 11/1. The cost of my spouse's meds each month is in the thousands so if this plan has a significant deductible it's going to bankrupt us.

In the meantime I've demanded at least policy documents so I can get an idea what the impact of coverage will be, but can they even do this, or should they have given us advance notification? Is there any solution to keep the existing plan we were on until at least 10/31, given this situation? Or are we just screwed?

submitted by /u/fairkatrina
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