I'm paying for COBRA, and it's $540 a month. I could have opted to change providers when I quit my job to start up, but the other options I saw were only slight

I'm paying for COBRA, and it's $540 a month. I could have opted to change providers when I quit my job to start up, but the other options I saw were only slightly cheaper and provided almost no coverage. You should check out the Freelancers' Union, too (I wasn't eligible since they require that you haven't been employed full-time for the three months prior to joining.) It's my understanding that part of why NY health insurance is so expensive is because we've had many of the regulations from the new health care bill (e.g., about discrimination based on preexisting conditions) here for many years and no individual mandate.