Medical Insurance – COBRA – please help!

I misunderstood my payment dates for COBRA insurance in Massachusetts. I made a payment on Oct 11th, believing I'm starting my Cobra insurance in October, but it was apparently applied to September which was my plan start date.

Today, I tried to make my next payment for November, but I found out my insurance has been terminated. I called Cobra and they said since I didn't make my October payment and I'm past the 30 day period, my insurance is terminated. I know this is my fault for not being more careful about these dates, but what can I do for medical insurance for the month of November?

This has been a rough 1.5 years. I finished chemo in Dec 2022, had a mastectomy surgery & another surgery this past Spring and I finished 1.5 months of radiation this Summer. I didn't get paid by my job during my medical leave, but when I came back a lot of my hours/work was taken away (but I still had a "job", so it was still "legal"), but my pay dropped to next to nothing.

So, in the past two months I've been in the middle of quitting, signing up for Cobra, finding a new job (1 hour commute each way), going to all of my follow up visits and starting immunotherapy medications that has it's own side effects.. I'm trying my best with everything going on, but this happened and I could really use someones help/guidance.

I explained my situation to Cobra and they put in an appeal on my behalf to the board and apparently they'll let me know by the end of the week if I'll be allowed to continue my Cobra coverage. I have signed up for an insurance plan on health connector that starts Dec 1st.

In case Cobra denies my appeal, I won't have insurance until Dec 1st. I have follow up visits this month that I hope I don't have to reschedule…I just found out that MA doesn't offer short term insurance plans.

Does anyone know what I can do medical insurance in Massachusetts for the month of November?

TIA

submitted by /u/AdventurousWhile3207
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