when I broke my arm a couple of years ago, we had catastrophic hospital insurance only; husband had lost his job in that last several months. We had just purchased individual, personal insurance before my arm, but hubby has many pre-existing conditions and plans won't cover him much. We ended up paying for most everything after initial surgery to fix my arm. Hubby has been variously laid off for about 2 years now, some contract-to-hire jobs coming in; one job he was actually hired at but then w/the recession they ended up letting lotta people go, including him, since he was so new. Currently hubby has new contract-to-hire job again which he really likes. We are very hopeful for this to work out. He has sleep apnea and has major problems w/his feet and knees and needs to see podiatrist; the brace the podiatrist prescribed for him the year before he first lost his job<before my arm mentioned above> is no longer as beneficial as it once was. The brace was the last step before surgery, according to podiatrist, who says he has physically "deformed" feet internally, part of issues w/his birth mother having had Rubella.
It has indeed been very stressful, especially with trying all these different insurance companies for him, trying to see if any will cover him, and they keep having to do all these exams each time he applies.