This is what we did without a job and employer-paid health insurance.
Healthcare was $20 every two weeks to cover my husband and me at my previous employer. If I had taken the COBRA when I left, the premium would have been ab0ut $1400 per month. That's more than we spend on healthcare between the two of us in a year!
Instead we (50 and 60 years old) purchased individual health insurance. The type of policy we purchased was a high deductible healthcare policy (HDHP) with a health savings account (HSA). The deductible is $5,000 per year per person and then the insurance company pays 100%. The cost for the first year is $306 per month. We have no health issues. I can't tell you what we would have done if we had had health issues that would have prevented us from getting individual health insurance.
Anybody watch Keith Olberman's Special Comment tonight?