<prompt> Human: My friend ran into this problem recently, when he had to go through a 15 day period without insurance between one insurance ending and another starting. Unfortunately around that time, he fell rather seriously ill, and the bills turned out to be 300. Is there any way to not get fucked by this rapacious industry ?  <response>: While some of the other replies mentioned COBRA coverage, they fail to mention one very key thing: you can retroactively apply for COBRA coverage within 60 days of losing coverage, only electing and paying for COBRA if you end up needing it, and getting full benefits for the entire period.The only disadvantages per se are that youre usually on the hook for 100 of the premiums including what your employer pays, if they subsidize the plan, and you have to pay back all of the premiums that you skipped before retroactively applying for COBRA which for you would only be one premium payment. 