The way you speak of all of these things just makes it obvious you've never been laid off and in the position to need to utilize these things. COBRA lets you keep your existing plan, but you pay for the entire premium. In most cases this is $1000-2000 per month. For someone in survival mode and needing to find where to cut costs, 2k per month could be more than their rent.

The max unemployment benefits for any state is not going to cover much of anything, you better have savings to fall back on.

And for those on H1B, there is a 60 day grace period. Maybe in 2021-2022 it was extremely easy, but today? A lot of people will be lucky to get through a full interview loop in that time.

I haven’t been laid off, you’re right. I’m just saying the GP made lots of absolute claims that aren’t absolutely true. Of course many European countries have bigger and better safety nets than the US, but it’s not like the US has none.

Most of the world (which isn’t the U.S. or Europe) is even worse.

Looks like you never actually had to pay for COBRA out of pocket. It's not financially feasible for the large majority of people, especially those who didn't have to pay out of pocket for their coverage previously. A single person can be ~$800USD, and if you want to cover dependents in your family, at least double it.

My partner is losing their healthcare very soon and it's cheaper to pay out of pocket for regular doctors and prescriptions than pay for COBRA. You basically have to be in the hospital for COBRA to be worth it.

My family coverage was $1900.

Mine was going to be around $2200/month. Thankfully my company paid for the first 6 months following the layoff.

Mine covered 4 months. I'm glad I was able to find another job before that ran out.

Paying one's own insurance when you don't know how long you'll have no income is outrageously expensive. Last time I changed jobs I just went without because the COBRA offering was so expensive.

I have no clue how unemployment works. I don't think I've ever paid into it?

if you’ve worked a w2 job in the US you’ve paid into it indirectly —your employer pays it on your behalf.

You should look up what max unemployment benefit payments are for your state, because they probably won't cover rent/mortgage if you live in any moderate CoL area.

You need to have some serious savings to pay out the monthly cost of COBRA. The last time I was in this position, it was ~$1,800/month to cover my family.