And when your COBRA expires?

COBRA is a (usually) spectacularly expensive, short-term solution. As an entrepreneur, it puts you in a position where you can be forced to change jobs or suspend a venture to get coverage for your family. It's a bad answer.

COBRA lasts at least a year and a half, and costs EXACTLY as much as your insurance cost when you were working.

COBRA is not spectacularly expensive, it's simply how much insurance costs, whether your company pays for it, or you do. If your company did not pay for health insurance, your salary would be higher.

If you have no money, that's bad, but saying you "have no insurance" because you can't afford it is silly. Talk about affordability if you like, but don't make nonsense posts about not having insurance.

COBRA costs exactly as much as the total insurance cost when you were working. Almost all health insurance plans are employer subsidized, sometimes pretty heavily. So your 150 dollar a month plan could end up costing you 400 bucks a month to keep when you hit COBRA.

Edit: Perhaps I wasn't adequately clear. My point is that you are responsible for the ENTIRE insurance bill when you go on COBRA, your part and your employer's contribution. Sometimes that contribution is quite large and it results in COBRA bills that aren't affordable, especially when compared to individual insurance options.

A family of four can expect to pay between 1200-1500/mo on typical conventional HMO/PPO coverage on COBRA.

(I was agreeing with you, just adding a data point).

My point is that COBRA costs significantly more than your health insurance plan when you opt to use it. Why people disagree with that so vehemently is odd.

Which is beyond affordable since you just lost your job. CORBA is a horrible solution.

> costs EXACTLY as much as your insurance cost when you were working.

There is usually an additional "administrative" fee added to the premiums as well.