[lrjohnson]

As I've said elsewhere, my job involves Medi-Cal (California's Medicaid). I would recommend everyone do what they can to get insurance, even if it's very high deductible. I've seen too many instances where people are immensely financially damaged due to illness/injury. They may have too many resources for public assistance, says $3000 in an IRA, but are looking at a $75,000 medical bill. Sometimes these people had insurance available at work but they considered it too expensive. I myself had over $2000 in medical bills even when I had insurance years ago, in 93/94-sliced my knee open and it got infected. I can't imagine what that "minor" injury would have cost without insurance.

I have employer-sponsored insurance and am very grateful. It's a PPO, fair coverage, fair price, I think my payment is about 40 a month. When I worked retail I was exceedingly lucky to have employer sponsored insurance at Ross Dress for Less-it was HMO, and it was great. I have periodically had some major health issues, so I rely on insurance, though thankfully I haven't needed too many medical services lately.