Just thought I would add another alternative for those who cannot get traditional insurance due to medical conditions or lack of credible coverage.
Our DS20 has melanoma and you cannot just go out and buy insurance with this diagnosis. He was covered under his father's plan until he was 19. Since he is not a full time student he could not continue this coverage (Obama has ammended this with his new health care initiative, but too late for our DS).
We went with Cobra coverage for about a year, but the cost was very high ($500 a month). I have found that it was actually cheap compared to others on Cobra, but we were having problems paying that. So we looked around and found that many states offer coverage through a high risk pool.
He was just approved for coverage through Inclusive Health, which is NC's high risk pool. We now pay $250 a month, which is very manageable and the coverage is pretty good.
Just another option!