[Jimbo]

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I currently pay a lot for COBRA from the job I left in November. It will be good until next June, it's over $450 a month. Great coverage and I have some problems, I've been in the hospital for over a week twice this year.

I'm in NY where I believe there's a law that you cannot pay a higher rate due to pre-existing conditions as long as you don't let your coverage lapse more than 60 days or something. This is a crappy law for everyone as a whole, but great for me personally. NY also has Healthy NY, which is subsidized health insurance that looks excellent (several different reputable companies and plans), for about half of what I pay now.

The problem is, I might be moving out of state soon and am wondering what will happen. If I move to a state that doesn't have the pre-existing condition law I'm assuming I can keep my COBRA, but don't know what I will do when that runs out and/or if I switch health plans now. Does anyone have any insights on this?

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It is a Federal law, part of COBRA itself. Feel free to move but keep in mind that if your former employer changes insurance (or their rates increase upon renewal) for it's current employees you will fall under the new plan as well and your rates may go up. One reason for them to change to a higher deductible of more costly plan would be because of excessive claims which it appears you seem to add into the likelihood of that occurance.

Jimbo