Health insurance gap after a layoff (update)

I have 4 weeks left on my current insurance and I am comparing options. The COBRA notice arrived with a very high price. How fast did coverage start?

Call your pharmacy too. Mine knew of a discount card that helped while coverage was being sorted out.

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it last year, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.