Prior to the Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, you had up to 18 months of COBRA eligibility, meaning you could stay on your employer's plan but paid all premiums (expensive). During that time you frantically look for a job that includes healthcare coverage. Failing either of those, you might find junk insurance, or you simply go without and hope for good health. If your income is / remains low enough you might qualify for Medicaid, but you pretty much have to be at the poverty level for that.
Post-ACA you can now purchase coverage from any of a variety of companies through the exchanges. Rates are limited in that there's now a legal requirement that a minimum percentage of premiums must actually be used to pay for medical expenses (I believe 80 or 85%) so premiums are set accordingly. There are also income based subsidies that you're eligible for of your income is more than 4x the poverty level.
There was also an expansion of Medicaid eligibility up to 4x the poverty level with the additional cost being paid by the federal government, but some states have refused that expansion and money. This has left many poor in those states stuck unable to afford premiums and unable to get either subsidies or Medicaid.
I went through layoff six months ago. ACA definitely has helped with health insurance. If you are unemployed (no income), you are most likely to get subsidy as it is income based. Our premiums after subsidy is little bit higher than what we were paying when I was employed.
I wish there was something similar to ACA for dental insurance. Most dental insurance plans on open market are expensive and with ridiculous terms, like 18-month waiting period! We had to take dental insurance plan through COBRA (almost 6 times as expensive as regular employee). Not sure what we will do with dental insurance after 18 months of coverage through COBRA.
Dental is harder, and (at least in my dentist's opinion) private dental insurance just isn't worth it. I can see the merits of that, because you're less likely to have a catastrophic dental emergency that can bankrupt you. A lot of dental insurance also seems to only cover 50% of the more expensive items.
It may be worth looking at how much you're paying each month in premiums and comparing that to the annual out-of-pocket cost for preventive / cleaning visits plus perhaps a filling or two. You may find that all the insurance is really doing is smoothing those payments out without saving you much money unless you have a "years of neglect" situation that you're still working through.
It's probably also worth asking your dentist if they have "self-pay" rates comparable to what they're getting from the insurance companies. If they bill $120 but accept $80 from insurance, will they take $80-90 cash from you instead of that $120? Also, for more expensive procedures like crowns, it's very likely that your dentist's office will let you do installments to spread the cost over at least several months. That doesn't really help when you don't have current income and aren't sure when you will have it, but it does relate to smoothing out your expenditures the way insurance premiums do.
My dentist actually mentioned that she can't charge less than what she bills to insurance company (at least on the books). It appears that if a dentist is part of an insurance network, by agreement with insurance company, s/he can't charge less to patient who don't have insurance.
I have a dentist friend whose practice doesn't accept any insurance so he is free to set his rates and charge his patient. After COBRA finishes we might go to him.
Post-ACA you can now purchase coverage from any of a variety of companies through the exchanges. Rates are limited in that there's now a legal requirement that a minimum percentage of premiums must actually be used to pay for medical expenses (I believe 80 or 85%) so premiums are set accordingly. There are also income based subsidies that you're eligible for of your income is more than 4x the poverty level.
There was also an expansion of Medicaid eligibility up to 4x the poverty level with the additional cost being paid by the federal government, but some states have refused that expansion and money. This has left many poor in those states stuck unable to afford premiums and unable to get either subsidies or Medicaid.