USA Today's Julie Appleby takes a detailed look at problems people encounter when they try to buy individual insurance policies, an issue that looms large in both presidential candidates' health plans.

Appleby sums it up like this:

Unlike group plans offered by employers—which provide coverage to everyone, no matter how sick—there is no guarantee in most states that individuals can get insurance. Even if they can, their policies may not cover existing medical conditions such as hay ever, depression or pregnancy.

Insurers "will not cover the sick if they can avoid them," New America's health policy director Len Nichols told the paper. Limits on who can get coverage is one of three problems with the individual market that must be addressed—along with the affordability of a policy, and whether it will cover what's needed when someone gets sick.

The main insurance lobby in DC, America's Health Insurance Plans, did its own study recently on 1.9 million individual applications. About 18.5 percent were withdrawn before the medical history was reviewed. Of the rest, AHIP said, nearly 89% got coverage, although the rate varied with age. One in 10 aged 30–39 were denied, compared with 29% of those ages 60–64. (A 2001 study by a Georgetown Health Policy Institute researcher found an overall rejection rate of 37 percent. )

Lots of states have experimented with different ways of regulating the individual markets. . . with mixed results. Appleby provides a run down.