How is this socialist trope?

A lot of planning involves “what happens if I lose my job”, or “my current workplace is hell, and between that and taking care of kids I can barely even start looking for another job, and I can’t afford to take a couple of months off because that would mean I need to go on the private insurance market for a few months which would be ridiculously expensive with my special needs kid”.

Even if you’re in an ideal scenario, with a cushy job that provides great employer insurance, it’s not close to being as good as having high quality healthcare irrespective of whether you have a good job, terrible job, or no job.

But wouldn't one avoid the private insurance market for those months by using COBRA?

COBRA is equally or even more expensive than private insurance at times. COBRA just guarantees that you get to keep the same insurance/coverage that you had with your employer but now you pay all costs out of pocket including employer portion which usually is a lot. To add to this, some employers charge an admin fee of 1-2% because they are managing this for you even after employment. So in total, you could pay upto 102% of the total cost of premiums.

102% of the premiums for 100% of the benefits for 0 time negotiating with the private market and with guaranteed coverage seems... fair?

” New study finds 45,000 deaths annually linked to lack of health coverage”

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/09/new-study-fin...