Losing employer insurance, where should I look? - 5 months and counting

I have 17 weeks left on my current insurance and I am comparing options. I have read a lot of threads here and could not find my exact situation. I do not want a gap in coverage. How fast did coverage start?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 5 months ago, and it got easier once I kept a simple log of every call and form.

Keep everything in writing and save the confirmation numbers. It made the follow-up calls so much easier.