We kept the COBRA policy for 7 yrs. It was very pricy, but worth it. Hubby and I have a lot of health issues and getting self-emp insurance is always expensive and hard to come by. Beggars can't be choosers. Or they turn into DUmmies.
You got to keep it for 7 years? Wow!!
I may have been able to keep mine past the 18 mos, but it was such incredible coverage, there was no way I could have afforded it as it was for employees. At the time, Talbot's had over 6000 employees, so it was a great policy. Preventative testing - mammograms, stress tests, even colonoscopies - had no chage to the employee. There were also about 15-20 outpatient surgeries that also had no charge....lumpectomies were in that category. I had to pay extra on mine, because the surgeon had the pathologist come into the OR and do some additional checking causing the surgery to last an extra 45 minutes.

I can't remember the name of the company I ended up going with - it wasn't Golden Rule, but the other one. It was really expensive because I'd had 3 lumpectomies by that time. After 5 years I was able to go with BCBS and it was better and cheaper. Cheaper being a relative term.