Dilemma with COBRA and paying OOP for medication

I would truly appreciate anyone's guidance on this. I am currently taking a prescription medicine that is over $1K at list price, but is largely subsidized by the drug manufacturer with a savings card. I end up paying $25. It is not covered by my insurance formulary. One of the stipulations of this savings card is that I must have commercial insurance, and the pharmacy must run this insurance first, and upon denial of coverage, can then apply the savings card to reduce the overall cost.

I was terminated from my job last week and and they are going to cover COBRA costs for the next 3 months. I'm just waiting for the enrollment papers. However, my refill for the above med is coming up in the next few days and it looks like COBRA won't kick in until at least 2-3 weeks from what I was told.

So my dilemma is this: if I go in for my refill, there will be no commercial insurance under my name, and the cost will be $1K. Savings card won't work. I don't believe this is something COBRA will reimburse me for retroactively since this drug is not in my formulary, and the only reason I was paying $25 was because of the manufacturer's discount. But I very much need this drug to treat a chronic condition.

Am I correct in thinking that if I do choose to pay the $1K, then I won't be able to recoup that? Am I better off hoping COBRA does kick in sooner than expected and just waiting it out as long as I can? Thank you for any advice on this.

submitted by /u/dustyfkey
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