I think a lot of us keep our COBRA coverage from previous employers. I took this route for about six months before getting around to pricing an individual plan

I think a lot of us keep our COBRA coverage from previous employers. I took this route for about six months before getting around to pricing an individual plan. Which, surprisingly, was about 1/3rd the cost for way better coverage than what I had before. I disagree somewhat about only needing coverage for catastrophic illness or accidents. There's a huge psychological benefit to not having to do a cost/benefit analysis if you think something's wrong and you want to go to a doctor.