If you've lost your job, you need to act fast to maintain adequate health insurance.

You have to decide, within 60 days of your separation, whether you want to stay on your former employer's plan through COBRA, the federal Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act.

What is COBRA?

COBRA is a federal law that requires your former employer to offer health insurance under the company plan to jettisoned workers for 18 months or more.

What does it cost?

That varies from plan to plan, but it can be very expensive -- upward of $1,000 per month for families.

That's because your employer probably subsidized your premiums when you were working but doesn't have to now that you're gone. The economic stimulus law that passed earlier this year requires employers to provide a discounted rate on COBRA coverage for some former employees. The subsidized rate amounts to 35 percent of the regular COBRA cost and lasts for nine months.

Can everyone qualify for the subsidy?

No. First, not everyone can get COBRA, because the federal law exempts small businesses and companies that terminate their health coverage. If you lost your job because your employer went out of business, you're out of luck.

If you were laid off by a big employer that's still in business and offering health insurance to employees, you must be offered COBRA coverage. To get the subsidy, you have to have involuntarily lost your job and your access to company-provided health insurance between September 2008 and Dec. 31, 2009. Continued...