This is a sore spot with me, I have a son who has a chronic, expensive illness (hemophilia) I've had too much experience with insurance companies and the screwed up health care system in the US. My solution was to always work for big companies - I had no choice. Otherwise, because of his preexisting condition, his policy would run me at least $1200 per month - yes, that's what I was quoted. That's almost twice my mortage payment on a small house. He's always gotten treatment and I've always managed to hang on to an insurance policy, but others have not been so fortunate. For a country like the United States, the convoluted, unjust, overly complicated and frightfully expensive system that we have is inexcusable. And yes, if you don't work for a big company you're screwed. If you develop an expensive illness they'll raise the premiums for all the employees of a small company to the point where they won't be able to offer insurance any more. I've also known of people who paid for individual policies, developed cancer or some other serious expensive illness, and whose policies were either canceled or their premiums were increased to the point where they couldn't afford to make the payments. Of course if you have an accident or illness and you don't have insurance they will go after your assets to pay the astronomical bills. I've heard the horror stories about the British NHS, and I'm sure they have their problems, but I'd gladly trade it for the one we have here, which isn't a system at all but more like a dog eat dog jungle.