I had this same issue for a year when I left my last job at a large company and went to work for a small company.
I was 'spoiled' at the big company because their buying pool of 90k employees was so large. It took a bit of mental chewing to come to grips that it is called health insurance for a reason and not a health plan. I came to realize that just like your car, whats it worth to you not to have to pay monthly for a possible big payout later?
I have a 2007 subie. Not worth covering the vehicle itself and I've been accident clean for 20 years (not my fault, been rear ended once in the p-car in that time). So I didn't carry on the car itself, but was darn sure to carry for hurting someone else (even if its the law). I just am not interested in having the remaining 1/2 of my life wiped by being sued into oblivion. Long story short, heavy traffic, long day, and oops. Fender bender. My fault by default. Guy I tapped said he was just thankful he didn't smack the guy in front of him (missed him by inches). I JUST clipped his bumper as he was going right on brakes and I was going left. Since we were on the brakes his bumper wiped out the headlamp/fender/inner support as I was nose down and he bumper up. So he got a scraped bumper (chrome on a ford truck) and I got a mess that got quoted at $5.5k just cause I hit him 'Just right'.
Moral of the story... expensive happens. Do you want to pay some now or pay a lot later. INSURANCE....your betting it does happen, the provider is betting it doesn't.
You hurt yourself, you cant write off your body like you can a car. Cancer happens. Falls happen. IMHO no insurance is not smart. Especially if you have kids.
Sorry for the long rant
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