Insurance-COBRA question

I will be relocating to another part of the country-- in fact I have been paying two mortgages for 3 months (thank you, housing market).

I'm starting to think I need to be more pro-active in my move (drop my house price---------argh! ) But I digress.

While I am sure my hospital HR person can answer this I thought you guys would be faster (and better?).

Obviously I am eligible for COBRA.
#1, What if I took a travel job ---say for 3-4 months-------at the end of that time if I chose to take an extended (3 months?) time off could I still be eligible for COBRA from my prior permanent hospital?

#2. Does working for a travel company make you COBRA eligible?

I'm going semi crazy trying to figure out what my best and my smartest (financial) move would be.
Thanks all!

From personal experience, COBRA is outrageously expensive. I paid over 1200/month for family health only in 2004. I know it varies by company but don't even want to imagine what the cost would be now. My experience: when I left the job, the hospital's insurance had like 30 days to send me the COBRA info, then I had around 30 days to accept or decline and had to pay the catch-up premiums up front. Problem is, while you're doing all that paperwork, you're not covered by insurance until after the premium is paid, etc... But when all that's done, it would be retroactive. So if you had an emergency appy or something two weeks after you left the job, when the hospital checked, the company would show at that time that you're not covered. It doesn't say that cobra is pending. And the same thing with getting prescriptions filled- you'd pay full cost up front and then submit for reimbursement when all the paperwork went through. It was a real pain in the neck. And if you don't accept COBRA within your window of opportunity, you're out. By the time you get through all the red tape, it's about time for your new insurance to be in effect. But who can go without health insurance, even for a few months? If it's just you and you're healthy, maybe one of those injury-type policies might work for a month or two- I'm no expert. But I have had the cobra experience, and it wasn't pretty. Check with your HR- it may be better now.