Weighing a contract offer against waiting - 4 months and counting

A permanent role may come up, but the contract starts now. It has been a long 13 weeks. I would gain recent experience. How did you handle benefits?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it 4 months ago, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.

Buy coverage through the marketplace if the contract has none. I budgeted for it before signing.