Owing to the recent high rate of unemployment (7.2% in December), the number of people being without health insurance has gone up too. According to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a 1% increase in unemployment results in a 1.1% rise in uninsured population.

COBRA, the acronym for the federal law that created it — the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 — typically provides 18 months of health insurance to workers who have been laid off from a firm with 20 or more employees. But under the program the individual must pay 102 percent of the policy's full cost. Because few people can afford that, the result is a growing number of people with neither a job, nor health coverage.

The national average cost of employer-provided coverage for an individual, plus the 2 percent fee, comes to $4,656 a year, or $388 a month. Family coverage is $12,823 a year, or $1,069 a month. A laid-off worker's monthly unemployment benefits average $1,278 nationwide.

According to House Speaker Nancy Polesi, unless health insurance subsidies are included in the next economic recovery package, unemployed people cannot afford to pay for health insurance.

Nina Owcharenko, a health policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, opines that it would be wiser to offer unemployed Americas a wide range of health insurance options like deductible private policies or a new state-based program. But given how expensive COBRAQ really is, the alternatives would save money not only for the individual, but also for the government.