Hilda Plummer, 58, a housekeeper for a family in suburban Maryland, is "underinsured." She makes between $14,000 and $15,000. Her employer provides health insurance for hospital costs only. "I am a diabetic and have had high blood pressure for 21 years and allergies," Plummer said. "I have to go to a doctor about once a month," she said, "which would cost $700 a year, and my prescriptions are $1,200 a year." She can't afford the $2,000 total, so she goes to the free Zacchaeus medical clinic in the District. But if she needed an MRI scan, surgery or other expensive care not covered by her policy, she couldn't get it from Zacchaeus, which offers primary care and is not set up to provide additional services. And she couldn't pay for it.

Not everyone gets sick while they are without insurance. Some people, like Leann Best, 28, and her husband Joe Best, 31, of Adger, Ala., forgo insurance. Joe's firm does not pay for its workers' insurance, and with two small children, they can't afford the $3,000 annual premiums out of his $25,000 salary. They have been uninsured for more than two years. They pay about $650 a year for occasional checkups, immunizations and minor illnesses.

On Nov. 26, 1991, [Rodney Sletten] and his wife Lori Clark Sletten, both 30, were driving back from Minneapolis in a borrowed pickup truck when it skidded on ice-slick roads and overturned. He suffered near-fatal brain injury, but he is improving. The bills came to nearly $260,000, Lori said. Auto insurance and Medicaid eventually covered more than $200,000, and the hospital was willing to write off $39,000 in charges. They still owe about $35,000 in medical bills and other debts.