By: Emily Beaver

Richard Peterson has never been injured or seriously ill. So when Peterson, a 24-year-old law student, was dropped from his parents' health insurance plan in 2008, he considered not buying insurance. Peterson could have gotten health insurance through his school, George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia, but the plan would have cost him about $100 a month. His wife gets health insurance at work, but getting added to her policy also would have been expensive, Peterson says.

Peterson didn't want to risk going without health insurance, so he searched online for individual health plans and found one that cost about half as much as the policy his school offered. He found a high-deductible health insurance plan at ehealthinsurance.com, a Web site that lets individuals and families search for health insurance plans.