That will change, at least temporarily, for millions of Americans, including the Brackins, with the stimulus package expected to be signed today by President Obama.
The package includes $25 billion to subsidize 65 percent of COBRA payments owed by laid-off workers.
The Brackins, relying on the advice of benefits broker David Waters, had cobbled together health insurance for the family using three different plans.
But on Friday, with the COBRA subsidy now all but certain, they reconsidered.
Lisa, Jim's wife of 25 years, will get coverage through her job as a billing coordinator for a Center City law firm.
Jim and the boys will get COBRA through his former employer, Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., where he had helped businesses lower premiums by improving safety.
What would have cost Jim and his sons $750 a month before the subsidy will now be $262 a month - less than the family was paying before Jim lost his job.
"I hate to rely on the government for anything," Lisa Brackin said last week, "but when it comes to trying to save some money, that's what you got to do."
Families can continue COBRA up to 18 months. The discount in the stimulus bill will last nine months. Only people who lost their jobs after Sept. 1 are eligible.
"If he doesn't get a job within nine months, I'm kicking him out!" Lisa said after she was told of the nine-month expiration. "I'm kidding, but come on. Nine months?" She didn't want to think about how the family would survive on one income for that long.
In case her husband can't meet her deadline, another provision of the stimulus package extends unemployment pay beyond the current six months, for an additional 33 weeks. That will cost an estimated $27 billion.
"We still have it better than 90 percent of the world," she said. "It's just stressful. It's frustrating."
A transitional fix
Six hundred thousand Americans lost jobs in January. Nearly 2 million people have lost jobs in the last three months.
