The government stimulus package that has helped millions of laid off Americans afford health insurance for the last 9 months, is expiring. There is a bill in congress to extend the benefits, but chances of an extension look slim. The stimulus package paid 65% of laid off workers COBRA health insurance benefits for nine months. Individuals who were laid off between September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009 qualified for this program, which began back in March. Individuals and families, who started on the program in March, must now begin paying their COBRA benefits in full, or lose their health care coverage. Plus, anyone laid off starting January 1, 2010 will not qualify for the COBRA benefits.

Many individuals and families will simply not be able to afford COBRA health care benefits without the government assistance program. Individuals and families affected are scrambling. For many, the cost of COBRA each month is more than their total monthly unemployment check. There are however, some options that are worth looking into.

One option, if available, is to obtain insurance from a spouse’s employer. More than likely this option will be cheaper than keeping coverage through COBRA. If this option is not available, you will want to start looking at other assistance programs. If you have COBRA family coverage, it may be in your best interest to keep that coverage individually or for you and your spouse. You most likely will be able to get coverage for your children through state sponsored low cost health insurance for kids programs.

There are some great resources available on the web to help you find low cost and government assisted health care programs. FamiliesUSA.org and insurekidsnow.gov are two great sites where you can find information on different health care options that might be available to you. You can even search your own state to see what programs are offered to you locally.

Whatever you do, don’t wait until your benefits have run out to start researching your options. This could be a costly mistake. Begin to weigh all of your options now. After you have made a decision it will take time to fill out paperwork and to have it processed. You do have a 30 day grace period to pay your bill under COBRA benefits. You will need to have new coverage before the grace period ends, or pay the COBRA bill another month until new benefits kick in.