uhh, what? Is employment in general "a form of feudalism" because people depend on it to fund their basic needs?

Cobra will allow you to keep your current plan, for my family that would have been ~$800 per month.

Healthcare.gov rates are based on your income, or what it was, or what you expect it to be. Which for me was ~$700.

So there is no way to get affordable insurance to cover the gap in employment in a way that preserves cash reserves.

It's one or the other.

Or you can claim the price makes it effectively tied to employment.

I agree the cultural ties it has to employment ought to end, but that's a peculiarity of the american system, not a fundamental feature of a private healthcare system.

I fail to see how it's any different than "there is no way to get affordable housing/food to cover the gap in employment in a way that preserves cash reserves". I suppose you could argue that with housing/food your costs stay the same regardless of your employment status, but from a finance perspective it's still the same. There's no difference between losing a $6000/month paycheck and losing a $5500/month paycheck and $500/month in insurance subsidies.

Maybe if that system had VERY strong economic regulations (like, the government would set prices for everything and let private carers compete in "value added".)

This is a feature, as far as major companies and lobbying organizations are concerned. It's a major reason behind the resistance to universal healthcare because the duress of losing health insurance is the only way some companies keep their employees.