The problem is the market is losing heat by the hour. There’s absolutely no guarantee there’s anyone hiring in a couple months. This year is very unlike the past ones. Closest analogue would be 2007 into 2008… until it’s 2001. Stay alert, eyes on the ball at all times.

> How hard is it to fund your own US insurance on a tech salary to tide you over?

Healthcare is NOT cheap if you want to maintain the same plan. I had to pay $2K a month for a family plan under COBRA several years ago. This is the same as a mortgage payment for me. Typically your employer bears the majority of your insurance cost, but you pay all of it under COBRA.

Oh wow that is absolute madness. That covers your costs for pretty much everything, right?

Not necessarily. There’s deductibles that need to be met, Copays, and co-insurance (what you pay after the deductible), rather you’re in network or out of network, etc.

For example, I had pneumonia some time ago and was in the hospital for about 10 days. The hospital billed by insurance something silly like $100,000. I ended up having to pay something like $4,000 out of pocket. I consider myself one of the lucky ones. It’s really important to review an employer’s health plans before accepting a job offer.

Not at all.

You will still have to pay your yearly deductible which is normally in the thousands of dollars. Then you also get to pay co-pays for every service regardless of where your deductible stands.

Don't forget that the insurance company gets to decide what is necessary, not your doctor.

The reason to have guaranteed severance for a long-ish time (3 months or so) is to soften your landing when the market/economy does not guarantee you a more well-paid job within that time. We might be entering one of those times, we might not, either way you should be prepared for it. If your employer has already made sure that you are prepared for it then that is less stress for you, which is good for everyone. It also means more predictable (although maybe higher) costs for the employer, which is usually good for them too.

It seems like tech-workers assume that things will always be easy on them when history clearly doesn't bear that out.

In the US there is something called COBRA, which allows you to continue the company plan for a year by paying the full amount (most companies will pay all/some of it while you are employed). It really depends on what kind of coverage and whether it's an individual or a family but it ranges from several hundred to over $1000 per month.

The whole system sucks really, but in today's economy I think most of these people will be just fine just because so many companies are hiring.

Depends on your age and dependents, but in the US the cost of health insurance can easily be in the same price range as housing. Employees are often not aware of the actual cost since most or all of the premiums are often paid by the employer.