<prompt> Human: Im looking for advice about the best way to manage health insurance with ongoing medical issues like Chrons disease.First, a little background. Im in my late 20s, and Ive always considered myself to be on top of my personal finances. I have degree from a good engineering school, and Im employed with an annual salary in the 80k range plus health benefits, etc. Although Ive always had health insurance, Ive rarely had to use it until recently. I was diagnosed with Chrons disease about a year ago. There is no known cure, so it is a disease that must be managed and treated on an ongoing basis.Although Chrons can be an expensive disease to treat, I am basically OK financially. I hit my deductible on my medical insurance provided by my job, and was able to use my Health Savings Account to pay for my medical expenses. We recently went through open enrollment at work, and I elected to switch to the gold plan - higher monthly premiums but lower annual deductibles, since I expect that I might hit my deductible again this year.Now, within the last month or so, Ive started to look at the possibility of changing jobs for unrelated reasons. Which got me thinking about my health insurance, since that is currently tied to my job. So I have several closely related questions for someone who knows more about health insurance than I do: If I change jobs and get a different insurance plan, am I correct in thinking that my progress toward my annual deductible resets to 0? That would be less than ideal, since Ive already made a lot of progress towards this years deductible. Is there anything I can do to prevent losing the progress Ive made? Is COBRA a good option to consider for something like this? Is there any way to make my health insurance more independent from my job? Is this worthwhile, or too expensive since work normally covers much of the cost? My Chrons disease is technically a pre-existing condition now right? It seems like people always talk about pre-existing conditions for people who didnt have any insurance and then tried to join. But I did have insurance when I was diagnosed. Does that change anything? Is HIPPA still a thing, or did that go away with the affordable care act? Any other advice, from a personal finance perspective, for someone who expects to have higher-than-normal health care costs for a long time? How do I manage my health insurance to keep overall costs as low as possible?I realize that theres some uncertainty around health care right now because of politics. In line with the rpersonalfinance rules, Im not interested in political discussion here, but in advice about insurance and ways that I can protect myself financially.Thanks for reading, and for any advice you have.  <response>: If I change jobs and get a different insurance plan, am I correct in thinking that my progress toward my annual deductible resets to 0? Deductibles on different plans are completely independant of each other. Company A doesnt care how much youve paid company B. Is there anything I can do to prevent losing the progress Ive made? Is COBRA a good option to consider for something like this?Im not sure if you can use COBRA if you have a new job that offers health insurance, but it will likely be much more expensive than youre used to since youre paying the entire premium. And if you decline to enroll when you get hired after a waiting period if necessary, you wont be able to reenroll until the next enrollment period. Is there any way to make my health insurance more independent from my job? Is this worthwhile, or too expensive since work normally covers much of the cost?Not really. You can go through the market place but youll receive no subsidy and end up paying a lot more most likely.pre-existing conditionYes, its a pre existing condition. ACA made discrimination against pre existing conditions illegal. HIPAA has nothing to do with anything. 