Electing COBRA after enrolling in spouse group plan

I have done a lot of research and think I know what I want to do, but was hoping for a sanity check on my plan.

I was terminated from a job in late June. They are offering to pay 3 months of COBRA. My partner is employed and I can use the termination as a qualifying life event to join their health insurance. COBRA is expensive enough that the 3 months I would have to pay out of pocket before open enrollment kicks in is not worth taking over joining the spouse plan. (Obviously, if I get re-employed before the three months, then the free COBRA insurance would be worth it, but I'm not sure how long it will take to find a job right now and the difference in OOP cost in the worst case would be ~$3000.)

However, I have about $1200 in unspent limited FSA funds from the old employer I want to use. My understanding from Treas. Reg. §54.4980B-7, Q/A-3 is that COBRA can only be terminated if another group plan is elected AFTER COBRA is elected. So if I sign up for another health plan first, then elect COBRA with FSA, the COBRA can't be automatically dropped. (These regs are based on Geissal v. Moore Medical Corp., 524 U.S. 74 (1998), which held that "An employer may not deny COBRA continuation coverage under its health plan to an otherwise eligible beneficiary because he is covered under another group health plan at the time he elects COBRA coverage.")

So basically, can I sign up for my spouse's plan today, elect COBRA tomorrow, spend down the FSA during the rest of July/August, then drop COBRA coverage?

submitted by /u/sevarian
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