Here's an interesting anecdote to compare with Don's post. Here in the US, the company my brother worked for went out of business. Normally you'd have the option to continue the insurance you had with the company as long as you pay the premium, for up to 18 months, but since the firm went out of business that option got screwed up. He has some preexisting conditions and he tried to get individual insurance, but every policy he found would have cost more than the amount he's getting on unemployment benefits per month, and they have preexisting condition clauses that would limit coverage for these conditions. He's trying to get a Continuation of Benefits Option worked out with one of his old company's subsidiarys, but the administrator is so swamped that he hasn't been able to get a straight answer, so at the moment he doesn't have insurance.

His knee was hurting so badly he went to the doctor on his own nickel. The doctor said he has a "Bakers Cyst" in his knee that needs to come out, but he would need to do an MRI to make sure, then they could schedule the surgery. My brother said forget it, he can't afford it. He managed to scrape up enough money to get a shot of cortisone to relieve the pain temporarily.   He had a job interview yesterday and hopefully he will get insurance again but even so there will probably be a six month preexisting condition clause. So he'll continue in pain, getting shots when he can afford it, while the knee continues to deteriorate.

By the way we have the best health care in the world here in the US..yeah right.