Health insurance.
(State laws differ and under the guise of consumer protection often limit severely the low-cost products which can be offered, so these products may not be available in California.)

1) Understand the purpose of insurance. Insurance is NOT a way to pay regular, expected, and budgetable bills. Insurance IS a way to pay for catastrophic losses. If you have an ongoing medical condition which costs you $100 a month in medicine -- don't look to insurance to pay for it. Any intelligent insurance company is simply going to charge you $120 a month in additional premiums to cover their costs and make a small profit.

Instead, budget those bills. Purchase your insurance ONLY to cover those bills which would send you to bankruptcy court. Budgeting a family deductible of $5000 may save you $400 a month over a plan with a deductible of $100.

Too many people use insurance to pay budgetable bills. This is one of the largest reasons insurance rates are high. (This philosophy also applies to auto and home insurance -- if you can pay for a $100 windshield, don't insurance it -- get a higher deductible and save money.)

2) Look for products which only cover catastrophic health care needs. I've seen policies with $10,000 annual deductibles.

3) Look for accident policies. These $10 a month type of policies typically pay for hospital time at a fixed rate such as $400 per day and may cover all Emergency Room expenses.

4) SHOP! If you aren't on an insurance plan, you aren't constrained by The List.

5) May doctors and hospitals will spread large bills over a year or longer to help you pay.

Life Insurance

The primary purpose of life insurance is to replace the wage earner(s) salary in the event of death until the surviving dependents are able to support themselves fully.

1) If you are cash short today, but have large needs, look for 1 year, annually increasing term life policies. Without further info, I couldn't tell your exact needs, but you probably need $500,000 coverage on Hubby and $100,000 on yourself.

2) SHOP around. But be careful. Look for the following terms:
- Waiver of Premium. This pays the life premium if the insured becomes disabled. This is very important to have. Cheap policies don't have it.
- Convertable. This allows you to convert this temporary term policy into a permanent, whole life or universal policy someday when cash improves. This is important, otherwise you won't be able to afford the premiums in your golden years.
- Maximum premiums versus anticipated premiums. Because of the uncertainty of AIDS and such, many companies give you two different premium schedules -- one they expect and a worst case schedule.

3) If you can't afford term life, look at the much cheaper Accidental Death and Disability coverage. But remember that these policies don't pay in the event of death by disease -- only accidental death.