Roberta Mason, 63, of Turner, Me., is one of millions of people who are finding themselves in a special kind of health insurance bind  or will soon.

This week’s column is for people like them.

Laid off from her job as a supervisor in a shoe factory last January, Ms. Mason was able to keep her health insurance under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, known as Cobra, largely because of a federal subsidy that helped make her payments relatively affordable, at $199 a month.

But the subsidy, which was part of President Obama’s stimulus package passed by Congress in February, lasts only nine months. And Ms. Mason’s time is up. In January, her Cobra payment will increase to $550, which is more than half of her $908 monthly unemployment check.

Her husband, Douglas, 66, is retired and receives about $1,900 a month in Social Security. His health care is covered by Medicare. But if Ms. Mason has to pay the full price on Cobra, she and her husband will have little left over from their two checks for living expenses.