Losing employer insurance, where should I look? after 8 years as a machine operator

My family's coverage ended with the layoff and we have a prescription we cannot skip. The COBRA notice arrived with a very high price. How fast did coverage start?

A free navigator at a community health centre walked me through my options. It took an hour and saved me a lot of guessing.

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