[yardie]

Can you enlighten us on how you can keep your employer provided health benefits after you leave the company. He could have taken the COBRA, but that is seriously expensive and has an expiration date (3,6,12 months, not really sure). When you leave a company that bundles health you don't choose anything.

[ars]

COBRA is not seriously expensive. Why does everyone think it is? It costs exactly the same amount it cost you while you were employed. It just comes out of your savings instead of your wages.

It lasts a year and a half, after which you should have another job, private insurance (if you want to be self employed), or medicaid if you can't find another job.

[felipe]

From my experience:

It is expensive. I was paying $1.2k per month on my COBRA.

It is not the same amount it costs while you were employed. It is the cost the company would otherwise pay for the benefit. What companies deduct from your paycheck is not the full amount, which under COBRA you will be responsible for. In addition, the company pays the benefits with pre-tax dollars (so they actually have an incentive to provide the most expensive insurance), while you now will be paying COBRA with after-tax dollars (hopefully from your savings). And remember there is no steady income coming in anymore.

Private individual insurance is very restrictive. It is not the same kind of coverage one would expect with a group insurance through the employer.

[tptacek]

COBRA does not cost "exactly the same amount it cost you while you were employed". It costs you what your employer paid for that coverage. Virtually all employer-provided health care is heavily subsidized, often to the tune of 50-90%.

It's weird that you have such strong opinions about this subject, given your superficial grasp of it.