Because I am self-employed, my family has never had health insurance. This worked out just fine for us for a long time. Our children rarely got sick, and when they did it was cheaper in the long run just to pay for it out of pocket. But then we had three things hit us all at once. Our daughter broke her arm bad enough to need pins in it, we had a premature baby, and our son needed his appendix out. We didn’t qualify for government help, and the bills literally crushed us financially. We ended up having to talk to a San Diego Bankruptcy Attorney. It was hard to come to that decision, but it was such a relief when we finally did.