I'm very fortunate, both in terms of having no major or ongoing medical issues (knock on wood) and good health insurance. I'm a federal employee, but my wife works for the state and we use hers. It covers as much as my plan through the federal government would, but is literally half the cost (especially since federal employees' plans have gone up more than 10% in the last two years). It's great overall, although it helps that basic check-ups and what-not have to be covered for free now.

When my daughter was born, I was self-employed and my wife had a terrible policy through a former employer. It took us a good year to pay off the cost of the c-section (even with her insurance). I had wanted to quit my old job and become self-employed about 6 months sooner, but we wouldn't have been able to get any insurance to cover anything obstetric, as she was already pregnant and this would've been a pre-existing condition. Obviously this was pre-Obamacare, but if the Republicans have their way it'll be the status quo again (anyone who thinks they'll replace it with anything remotely meaningful is delusional). It wasn't long before this that my friend with type-1 diabetes couldn't find health insurance for less than $600 per month, and which wouldn't cover anything related to diabetes for the first year. Can't wait to win like that again!