We are lucky in that my husband works for UCSF and therefore is part of a very large group with open enrollment. We started years ago with a local co-op group that no longer exists, and several times have been bought and sold to some other company like a herd of cattle. We currently have a pretty good HMO, but they wait as long as possible to pay for stuff they have pre-authorized, sometimes over a year. This is why the only orthopedist I can now see is the guy who takes Medi-Cal patients and has twenty people in his waiting room and you get five minutes. The guy I used to see won't take my insurance any more.

Since our son was born with neurological problems, we would be in big trouble without health insurance. Not to mention our daughter's serious accident and week-long hospitalization at the age of seven months. Not to mention surgery after my husband stuck a pocket knife into his left hand while trying to cut something. (It required surgery because of a botched job of treatment at the county emergency room. We went there because it was close and he was bleeding from an artery.)Without health insurance, all this would have been beyond our means to pay for. So I don't think you should just assume you're going to stay healthy--except for Daniel's condition, all our hospitalizations have been because of accidents.