Job loss can be devastating to a family anyway, but when you tack on the additional burden of trying to hold on to a family health insurance policy, it becomes a case of insult upon injury. Without the benefit of employer based coverage, in which the employer carries a large part of the cost of coverage, families are forced to pay for the extremely high COBRA program, which can easily eat up all of a family’s unemployment benefits, or they can try to acquire a private plan, which often is full of exclusions and high out of pocket costs. In families with special needs children, bankruptcy can loom all too quickly in the future. What needs to change so that health care is not so intricately tied to one’s employment status?