The state's jobless rate has hit a 15-year high, and for the people behind the statistics, there is a special urgency. Massachusetts, unlike other states, requires nearly everyone to have health insurance - even if they have lost their job and, with it, their health coverage. Going without insurance for more than three months can result in a stiff penalty. Congress is crafting a stimulus package that would provide laid-off workers with some health coverage assistance, but for now, the state's unemployed, and underemployed, are scrambling to piece together affordable coverage. Unemployment benefits, or a spouse's income, can make recipients ineligible for health insurance assistance through the state. The hunt for coverage is challenging. Here are three examples.

The Izuchis of Roxbury

"I am investigating everything and anything I can"In the netherworld of unemployment, Vivian Izuchi is one of the lucky ones. Barely a month after being laid off as director of an after-school program at Roxbury Presbyterian Church - the program closed because of low enrollments - the 53-year-old is poised to start a new job as director of another church-based after-school program.

A vivacious mother of three girls, Izuchi says parenthood has been a "blessed" distraction during a hard time. "It doesn't give you time to dwell," she said.

Right now, Izuchi's mission is to find new health insurance. The new job doesn't include that benefit, and coverage from her previous job just expired.

"I am investigating everything and anything I can," she said.

Winter is an especially dicey time in the Izuchi household to be without health insurance. Colds tend to exacerbate the girls' asthma.

That Izuchi's last job provided health coverage was extraordinary, given that many small employers do not.

Church leaders, who backed the state's landmark law to expand access to more residents, scrounged to find coverage for her.

The coverage they found was expensive, given her modest salary - Izuchi paid a nearly $600-a-month premium for herself, three daughters, and her husband, now an unemployed cab driver. But it was decent health coverage, she said.

Now she and her new boss are scouring the Internet and sorting through the maze of state-subsidized programs to see if she might qualify for one.

"God looks out for fools and babies," Izuchi said. "I can't dwell on the negative."

The MacPhersons of Holbrook

"Now I am worried the next bill I open is, 'You weren't covered for this, and it's $6,000' "One hundred hours, at a minimum. That's how long Cynthia MacPherson swears she has spent on the phone in the past month piecing together health coverage for herself, her husband, and their three children.

"I am the biggest bulldog, when it comes to my kids," said MacPherson, 46, who was laid off Nov. 29 from her job as a part-time restaurant manager. A week later, her 50-year-old husband, Jim, lost his management job at a construction equipment firm.