"My husband and I are self-employed and do not have the option of having insurance through our employer. We have found insurance companies such as Unicare and Fortis are designed for people like us. My husband and I had been used to insurance through an employer with co-pay and prescription benefits but now we pay only $650 per quarter for a family of two adults and 6 children but have a deductible of $10,000 per year for the family.  I know many people will think that sounds scary but we ran the numbers and found it works for us. We have been blessed with good health (Thank you, Lord!) but even if we had not we would have had to have multiple doctor visits per person to make is worth spending more for a plan that allows us co-pays and prescription benefits. Also our county health department offers immunizations for children for $6 per visit. We have also found a community clinic designed mainly for self-employed people or farmers that don’t have great health insurance. They have office visits for $10 per visit should we need to see a doctor. One other thought: in Indiana the CVS drug stores now have a Minute Clinic that is staffed by a nurse practitioner that can check for ear infections or an instant strep test for a one time fee that many insurance companies will cover. Last but not least, proper nutrition goes a long way to insuring good health." ~ Lisa

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"My family seems to have multiple prescriptions that we fill each month. Even though we do have some Rx coverage in our health plan, it still adds up to hundreds of dollars each month. I have found that if I check the Sunday newspaper ads for coupons I can usually subsidize the cost of these Rx by getting free gift cards when I fill them. I have also found that certain pharmacies will take other stores coupons, so the last time I had 8 prescriptions filled at Target I got $160 in gift cards ($20 coupon for each). This allowed me to shift some of the budgeted grocery money for the Rx and use the gift cards to buy groceries." ~ Mary

"There are several cost-sharing Christian ministries, which are less expensive than insurance and have a lower deductible. They are not insurance, but are funded by like-minded Christians. We belong to Samaritan Ministries (http://www.samaritanministries.org)." ~ Sara

"I used a website called ehealthinsurance.com (http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/) during my 7 months of unemployment to purchase short term medical for a family of 4. They offer medical/dental/short term/long-term insurance. You just fill out the application and you can review the companies that come up, and apply on-line. They even give the Best Guide insurance rating for each company." ~ Debbie S.