Actually, you have 60 days to sign up for cobra (see the below quote). At my husband's office, we used to run into this all the time. We have a 60 day waiting period for new employees to get on our insurance plan, so most of them don't actually sign up for Cobra as the last day for the sign up is actually the first day of our coverage. Twice, we have had employees who had a medical problem come up in that 60 day period who went to the Dr. and then signed up for cobra the next day and it covered it since it is retro active to the first day you were eligeable. These employees who went without cobra were never considered uninsured by our insurance co. during that 60 day cobra time period. Also, the new insurance coverage can only use the pre-existing clause for as long as you didn't have coverage...IE...if you had coverage for 11 out of 12 months, they are only allowed to not cover your pre-existing for 1 month. Since you are applying at your works open enrollment, I'm pretty sure the insurance company has to take you and can not deny coverage for your pre-existing condition under these circumstances.
In that letter your husband tore up may have been a certificate that showed your previous coverage and the length of that coverage...you are going to need that for your new insurance to prove that you were covered for those 11 months.
"Once your insurance ends, your employer must give you written notice of your rights under COBRA. Then, you have 60 days from the date of the notice or the day your previous coverage ended, whichever is later, to decide if you want to sign up for COBRA. If you do not sign up within this time period, you cannot decide to sign up later. If you sign up, the health premiums are retroactive, so they start from the day you leave the company. The first premium payment must be made within 45 days of sign up, and you will have a 30-day grace period for the rest of the payments."
Go talk to your HR dept on Monday. You need to understand exactly what is going on in your case. If your new insurance isn't going to cover your heart (I don't think there is any chance of this) you need to know that b/c Cobra is then going to be what you need to do.
