Of working-age U.S. residents who sought individual health coverage in the last three years, 89% were rejected for medical reasons or felt that the available plans were unaffordable[Source]
The problem is deeper than just cost. Quality of services is impacted when you don’t have insurance. When you say "cash pay" at a doctor’s office they sneer at you, make you wait longer, then let the interns experiment and get their experience on you while the insured go straight to doctors with less wait. Being uninsured isn’t just a financial problem, it is in iteself a health problem. The stigma of being uninsured is daunting despite 42.6 million American people (10million being children) being uninsured [Source – US Census Bureau] and those figures are 1998-99.
Man, uninsured is hella scary. When I was in a 3 month grace period between insurance plans, a 1 yr old Pigpen had a seizure, and freaked GAC right out. I came home to an ambulance at the house, and followed it to the hospital.
Turns out that it was just febrile, and nothing to really worry about, so the concern then became the $1100 bill that took a year to pay off.