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?
About Stan Guthrie
Stan Guthrie is an editor at large for Christianity Today magazine and for the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. His latest book is God's Story in 66 Verses. He also is author of All that Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Us, Missions in the Third Millennium: 21 Key Trends for the 21st Century, and A Concise Guide to Bible Prophecy. He is co-author of The Sacrament of Evangelism. Besides authoring, writing, and editing books, Stan is a literary agent, bringing together good authors, good books, and good publishers.
Stan writes the monthly Priorities colum for BreakPoint.org. He has appeared on National Public Radio's Tell Me More, WGN's Milt Rosenberg program, and many Christian shows, including The Eric Metaxas Show and Moody Radio's New Day Florida. A licensed minister and an inspirational speaker, he served as moderator for the Christian Book Expo panel discussion, Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?
