Many laid-off workers kiss health coverage goodbye: they fall between cracks of state health care system.

For the growing army of laid-off workers in the Southland, health care coverage has become an unattainable luxury.

"If you're unemployed, you just can't afford health insurance," said Armando Olivas, director of Community Services for the AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization that represents 600,000 union workers in L.A. County.

Most unemployed Angelenos are going without any health coverage at all because they can't afford to maintain their private-sector insurance plans, Olivas explained, and they can't yet qualify for Medi-Cal -- government-subsidized insurance for the poor.

He said his office is being overwhelmed with calls from laid-off union workers who can barely afford food, let alone health insurance.

Olivas said his usual advice to laid-off union workers who call about health insurance is to keep their medical benefits from their former employer.

Under a federal law known as COBRA -- Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act -- workers are entitled to keep their health benefits for up to 18 months after leaving a job as long as they pay the premiums. Under the law, employers cannot charge more than 102 percent of the group rate. COBRA requirements apply to all companies with more than 20 employees. Dependents are also covered for 36 months.

With laid-off workers getting no more than $266 a week in unemployment benefits, few people can afford to take advantage of COBRA, however.

Long Beach-based Douglas Aircraft Co. gives its hordes of laid-off workers free health insurance for the month they are laid off and the month after. But after that, they must pay health insurance premiums for whatever plan they were enrolled in at the time they were laid off, said Floyd Sparks, pension and benefits representative for United Auto Workers Local 148, which represents production and maintenance workers at the Long Beach facility.

For the cheapest health plan, a health maintenance organization, premiums are $260 a month for a single person and $400 a month for a family.

For those enrolled in a more-expensive health plan, such as an indemnity program, premiums are $326 a month for an individual and $760 a month for a family of two or more people.

Sparks called the state of health coverage for laid-off workers "a disaster."

Close to 20,000 workers have been laid off at Douglas Aircraft's Long Beach plant since mid-1990 and McDonnell Douglas Corp., its parent company, recently announced it would cut another 4,000 to 5,000 jobs at its Long Beach site.

"As more people get laid off, we've turned to county services," said Sparks.

The overwhelmed county health system has 20 free clinics and emergency rooms to care for the uninsured. But that system is so overcrowded that uninsured patients typically must wait several hours to see a doctor.

Because the clinics are backlogged with appointments, those who are uninsured and get sick usually must seek care through an emergency room at one of the county's six hospitals.

Anti-dumping laws, enacted in California three to four years ago, forbid any hospital from turning away an indigent patient in an emergency.

Gaining access to Medi-Cal, a very detailed process, is also usually not an option for the typical laid-off worker.

According to a spokesman for the L.A. County Department of Health Services, a person must be either younger than 21 years of age, older than 64, permanently disabled, blind or pregnant to qualify for Medi-Cal. Some exceptions do exist for primary wage earners with children.

If a person cannot qualify for Medi-Cal and is in need of emergency services or "medically necessary" care, the county has an ability-to-pay program.

County hospitals, however, are so overwhelmed with patients that they have had to temporarily close emergency rooms on certain occasions.

Union representative Sparks, who said he is outraged over the lack of health coverage for laid-off workers, said the only cure for the health care crisis facing laid-off workers is to create decent jobs and a national health system.

"We need to bring manufacturing back to this country and keep people off welfare roles," he said.

Olivas said the AFL-CIO's community services department in L.A. is getting a steady stream of 50 to 100 calls a day from laid-off workers seeking, food, shelter and health coverage.