UnitedHealth to Guarantee Your Right to Health Insurance

This is pretty strange: Golden Rule, a part of UnitedHealth, is now selling an insurance plan that ensures your future access to health insurance. The Continuity plan guarantees the right to health insurance in case you get laid off or your employer no longer sponsors health insurance coverage. The monthly fee is a percentage of the current health insurance premium. I guess this could be a good idea for someone with pre-existing conditions that might prevent them from buying health insurance on the open market, but is this really that much of a savings on individual health insurance rates over COBRA?

UnitedHealth's Continuity is now available in 25 states, and plans are that it will soon expand to 40.