Thousands of Americans will have to pay a lot more for COBRA, the federal program which allows workers to keep their company’s health insurance plan after they leave their job.

The reduced-cost premiums stopped for the first wave of recipients which was a part of the economic stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama.

After facing a possible foreclosure sale of his San Jose house three days before Christmas, the unemployed operations manager, Jim Kvek, learned this week that his government-subsidized health insurance premiums will immediately jump 65 percent to $775.

"I don't have the 500 extra dollars and I'll have to find somebody to borrow the money from before I lose my coverage," said Kvek, 61, who suffers from Parkinson's disease. "This is a huge hardship for me, and I have no Plan B."

From the time the subsidy was capped at nine months, recipients such as Kvek Advertisement Quantcast who began receiving the cost reduction in March are now ineligible. 

The democrats in Congress want to act but it’s not clear how one option is to include the subsidy extension in a larger jobs bill that’s being discussed.