[ryandrake]

Not to everyone. I seriously thought about contracting full-time, and when I went to buy personal health insurance, I was denied based on a pre-existing condition (they wouldn't even tell me what the condition they thought I had was). So, my only choices were 1. contract and risk health bankruptcy or 2. go back to W2 work.

[smsm42]

That sounds weird - I thought there's COBRA and HIPAA explicitly provides plans for people with uninterrupted (for more than 63 days) coverage, regardless of medical history, e.g.: http://www.dmhc.ca.gov/dmhc_consumer/hp/hp_hipaacp.aspx

But of course, not knowing your specific situation (and not being a lawyer) I don't know what happened, but it seems like whoever denied your coverage may have violated the law.

[ryandrake]

To clarify, I was long past the COBRA period, out of work for quite a long time by the time I applied for individual coverage.