[buff-a]

If you lose your job you may have to pay a lot more (COBRA) for a limited time

No, you'll pay the same as you were paying. Its just that before, you thought you were being paid $100,000 when in fact you were being paid $120,000, and out of that came your health insurance and the other (more-than-) half of your social security and income taxes.

[awolf]

You pay 10% more on COBRA than your employer was paying on your behalf. But the gist of what your saying still stands.

[quatrevingts]

Plus, COBRA payments are (generally) not tax-deductible, so add another 30-40% more.

[Intermernet]

I'd suggest that just using the ~$100,000 salary range as an example has shown that you're not really understanding of the "average" employee.