Panicking- please tell me there is hope

In September I lost my job after 10 years and have been dealing with unemployment for the first time in my entire life. I got on COBRA insurance and thought I had myself set up for reoccurring payments after the first two payments that I made. But it seems that wasn’t the case.

Admittedly, I thought it was weird when I got a notice for non-payment in the middle of December. But I figured maybe it was taking them time to initiate the automatic & recurring payments. So to be safe I wrote checks for both December and January premiums and sent them off together.

In January I didn’t hear anything unusual and got the standard bill that summarizes your premiums. I figured it was like any other account where even when you’re on a payment plan or have a reoccurring payments they still stuck in your statement so I didn’t think much of it.

But tonight I started getting weird email notices from BCBS about some claims being processed. So I hopped on the website and imagine my surprise when it said I had no coverage! I thought that was weird, so I went and checked the cobra administrator site. And that is when I realized they don’t show any payments for me since my two individual payments I don’t list a benefit plan for me in my account. In that moment it became crystal clear to me that the reoccurring payments I thought we’re going through never did and the checks that I wrote never got cashed. I’m not sure why they didn’t cash them because they would have been there before the end of my grace period. I’m thinking maybe the check got lost in the mail since it was during the holidays.

I am absolutely freaking out and I can’t call my COBRA administrator until Monday. FULL PANIC ATTACK MODE RIGHT NOW!

Someone PLEASE tell me there’s a chance I can call them monday, pay over the phone or online for the two missing payments in full, and have my benefits reinstated if someone takes pity on me!! Obviously I will also be asking their help for setting up the reoccurring payments the right way immediately.

I cannot lose my health insurance. In fact, I have a doctors appointment in two weeks that involves imaging for cancer and I can’t afford it out of pocket. Someone please help me figure out what to do and give me some hope I am not really screwed. I truly don’t know what I will do without coverage.

cries