[fdesmet]

It sounds like you haven't actually tried to obtain affordable private medical insurance. I have. A few years ago, I spent almost two years working sans paycheck on a startup and found it easy to satisfy one of my prerequisites, which was an affordable high-deductible medical insurance policy.

The notion that medical insurance has to be expensive is a myth. The notion that medical insurance has to cover every bout of the sniffles is a myth. My policy had a $1000 deductible, which meant I was on the hook for routine medical visits (I didn't have any in two years), but that policy relieved me from worries about financial ruin due to any potential major medical problems. The high-deductible policy that I purchased was less than half the cost of my former employer's COBRA plan. It was well within the realm of ramen profitability. It doesn't take much effort to be an informed consumer in the medical insurance marketplace, but many people (it seems) can't be bothered to try.