Changing Jobs and Dealing with Insurance/COBRA

My last day at my old job is officially tomorrow but I took a vacation day.  I should have about 40 hours left of PTO that will be added to my last pay check.

My current insurance coverage will end on Saturday.  Our new coverage will begin November 1st. Mr. R will actually be joining the plan that is offered through his work.  It's a really great plan and the cost is low for the individual employee.  His work just doesn't help pay anything towards the family premiums.

So my new job will be providing the health insurance for me and the girls.  They are paying 50% of the premium and the other 50% will be deducted from my pay.  It's a pretty good plan, comparable to what we are used to.

If I'm understanding how COBRA works correctly, then I should be receiving paperwork to opt in to COBRA in the next week or so.  If I elect to join COBRA, then our coverage will have started on October 16, which is the date my previous coverage ends.  

Hopefully we won't need any medical care for those 2 weeks, but if something did happen I'll be able to elect to continue my old coverage.  If we get to November 1st without any medical needs, then I won't elect to continue coverage since we will be covered under the new policy.

Neither of our jobs offer Dental Insurance.  I've been reviewing policies with different insurance companies and am having a hard time deciding if it's worth it to pay for coverage or just self insure, putting the same amount of money that we would spend per month away in savings in case we need anything done.  I have great teeth with little problems but my husband and daughters seem to always need something done.

Before I make a decision, I need to review what I had been paying for our old plan and exactly what the coverage was compared to the costs and coverage of new plans now that I don't have a job paying part of my premiums.

Changing jobs is a lot of work!