personal opinion, here, but unless you are in a situation like lauren was where she could get good insurance through her husband, i do NOT think you should be COBRAing your own insurance to avoid putting a strain on your company. first of all, lauren's absolutely right about COBRA lasting 18 months (there are extensions for people with disabilities that sometimes apply, but probably wouldn't in the case where you are employed by another company already). secondly, you are going to be working and giving benefit to the new company -- and you frankly deserve the benefits that it offers to all valued employees. it's up to your company to choose a plan that will be affordable to it even if someone has high medical expenses.
let's be honest here: there are TONS of people with high medical bills who still work. diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, depression . . . the list goes on and on when it comes to disease that require ongoing treatment but still leave people able to work. not only that, but an employees spouse or child may well be disabled. there is a REASON that employers are not allowed to ask about disability status, a REASON why our health information is kept private, and that is to avoid the situation where people with disabilities who can still make meaningful contributions to society and the economy are prevented from doing so because of insurance or other superficial barriers.
cfers who work are every bit as valuable as any other employee, provided of course they do their job well, etc. it's great that you want to help your company in any way possible and are concerned about its financial well being. but 1) you shouldn't have to bear the financial burden of responsibility fr a company in which you own no equity, and 2) that is not what COBRA is for -- it's an abuse of the law, frankly. COBRA is there as a safety net for people who lose or leave their job and are not covered by another insurance for a certain amount of time. it is NOT designed to allow employees to transfer costs from their new company back on to their old one. furthermore,