13 years ago I was fully covered by health insurance in California. I moved to Washington with a new job, not a single day of unemployment. I then got another insurance plan. Then about 6 weeks later I found out that I was pregnant. The current health plan said pre-existing condition.

My old health plan was an HMO for only N. California, so that was out. The only recourse that I had was to get COBRA coverage from the old job. This was a bit less than 300/month out of my pocket. But the coverage was much less and I had to pay 10% of the cost of the ob/gyn bill plus deductables. Half thru the pregnancy I got married and his insurance also would not cover anything.

The total bill was about 22,000 with about 4,500 out of pocket.

Moral of the story I guess is that you must pee in a jar whenever changing jobs or you might not be covered. And by the way the first appointment, 10 minutes, was $125. It was not covered. The insurance had a one year waiting period for any Gyn service such as pregnancy testing, pap smears, etc.