Recently I was compelled to seek health insurance on the open market. With cardiac disease, high cholesterol, & hypertension, this proved somewhat problematic for me.
Turns out, New Mexico has a health insurance "pool", New Mexico Health Insurance Alliance - sort of "public option, lite" - with choice of 3 carriers (Presbyterian, Lovelace, Blue Cross/Blue Shield). No health questions - they are required to accept everyone, with the single caveat that the individual must have been continuously covered for preceding 18 months (there's a 63-day grace period).
It's not cheap, but it IS available! - and the coverage ain't half bad. (... and for what it doesn't cover, or when/if the prescription benefit runs out - $5k/year - there's a second pool for which NMHIA members automatically qualify.)
For a fun, if more-than-slightly depressing, read on the history of "universal health coverage" in the U.S., see Pre-existing condition in 7 Dec 2009 edition of The New Yorker.
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http://robertreich.blogspot.com/ How a Few Private Health Insurers Are on the Way to Controlling Health Care THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2009.
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