COBRA quote is huge, any alternatives? after 13 years as a web developer

The COBRA quote for my family is $1050 a month and I do not know how to afford it. I would rather hear the honest version than the polite one. I saw that marketplace plans might cost less. How did you decide?

Thanks for writing this out. I went through something close to it last year, and it settled down once I kept a simple log of every call and form.

A quick call to the plan's member line cleared up two things for us that the letter did not.