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.