Your taxes would only be 40% (actually 47%) if you make beyond $500k a year. Cobra rates are quite affordable. I was on Cobra when I was laid off due to covid, and it was $550 a month for top tier healthcare.
$550 for gold level insurance is expected for someone young, which I guess you are.
You can ballpark almost anyone’s premiums based on the figures in link below. I would use Omnia Gold or Omnia Silver HSA numbers, and plus or minus 20% for your state.
https://www.state.nj.us/dobi/division_insurance/ihcseh/ihcra...
You'd get that withheld money back after filing taxes, but most people who are laid off would prefer to have that money now.
If Stripe is making regular salary-like payments instead of one lump sum, then the taxes would be pretty much the same as always.
Those two statements are in odds with one another. $550 is quite a large sum of money to put out each month, particularly when you don't have an income.
https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/premium-tax-credit
Generally, decent insurance costs anywhere from $400 to $1,200 per month, depending on age of insured, plus up to $9k out of pocket maximum for individual and $18k for families, per calendar year.
So to adequate insure one’s self for healthcare expenses, you would need $18k or $36k for out of pocket expenses (since things can happen at end of calendar year), plus $400 to $1,200 per person per month minus any premium tax credits. For a young family, I would guesstimate $24k to $30k per year in premiums minus any tax credits.
Basically, be poor enough to qualify for free healthcare, or earn enough to be able to spend a few tens of thousands of dollars for a healthcare emergency, but try not to be inbetween.
(I actually do not have any compulsion to drink coffee, or anything much other than tap water).
On a serious note, I cannot blame many young people for eschewing forming families of having kids when faced with the numbers I quoted.
Obviously family plans etc. will be considerably higher.