Brilliant

Acquiring health insurance is a nightmare for the unemployed. COBRA, the insurance you have as a continuation of your policy in effect while you were working, costs significantly more now that you are not working. In other words, when you theoretically could afford to pay more, you paid less. When you need to pay less, you have to pay more. Brilliant.

The alternatives to COBRA, catastrophic coverage through a number of insurers, might be an option as long as you have absolutely no pre-existing conditions, no matter how minor. This makes private health insurance all but unattainable for all but the youngest and healthiest and those without dependents-precisely those who need it least.

So am I in favor of universal health care? Are you kidding? Why would I turn my healthcare over to the tender mercies of the governmet bureaucrats who make the inefficient process of applying for unemployment so utterly dehumanizing?