Personally, I'd like to see health insurance affordable enough that individuals could pay for their own.

Well, IMHO, the best way to make it more affordable is to allow purchaing of health insurance across state lines and tort reform, neither of which was addressed by ObamaCare. In fact, ObamaCare is making health insurance less affordable, not more.

Neither one of us is in bad health, although we are both overweight and have allergies - however, we are both over 50 years old.

Andy and I are both very healthy and, although Andy is overweight, I am not. Andy turns 60 this year. What do you think we pay for health insurance?

Basically it came down to the choice of keeping the house paid for (less than 1200$) or buy health insurance. Which way do you think I went?

I am certain that you kept making your mortgage payments and kept your fingers crossed. The point is, there is no such thing as health insurance. You cannot insure your health. What health insurance does is insure your wealth. Andy and I cannot afford to be without it. If one of us had a catastophic illness, they would come and take away our house and drain all of our retirement savings.