I'm probably in the minority (what a shock) but I made it a priority to make sure my family had health insurance while I was unemployed or under-employed for over 2 years a while back. I drive a 98 Honda Civic, don't have cable, and we rarely eat out but we still have fun, go figger!
When I was unemployed, we used 2 individual plans, NASE and Unicare. It varies greatly by state but we had good success with both of them and paid around $450 per month.
Your mileage may very, but both worked fine by us and they paid for dr visits, generics, and such minus our co-pay. There are scams out there but these 2 worked ok for us. Thank God I work for a hospital now and it has excellent coverage.
From my professional experience, I would read all the fine print if you use the Medicare alternative, Secure Horizons. I know of so many anecdotal stories of them not paying for some things that Medicare is probably the better choice IMO. But then again, some feel it's great.
Thanks fer the links Ann.