If we're being honest and responsible, until that employee has found other employment.

Sure, it'd grant some people poorer than the average HN reader a significantly more reliable safety net along with some mobility and autonomy, but how quickly do you think it would take until the corporate sponsors started championing a program that benefits everyone, like medicare for all?

Things are bad for a lot of people, and maybe my thinking is old fashioned, but the health of a nation isn't a game of winners and losers that needs to be run like a casino.

If they're part of a union that's on strike? For the duration of the strike, or until their employment ends, whichever comes first.

Who determines when their employment ends?

The employer has the right to fire whomever it wishes. The employee has the right to quit whenever he wishes. Why would one expect an employer to pay compensation or benefits to an employee who doesn’t show up to work? Unions have a right to organize. And employers have the right to fire every last one of them and go non-union. Do you not agree?

Employment ends when the employee quits or the employer fires the employee. However, you are wrong: they do not have the right to fire striking employees. That violates the National Labor Relations Act. In fact, dropping the workers' insurance policy might also violate the NLRA.