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One of my dentist's technicians and her husband have two small children. The only insurance they could afford a few years ago when she told me about this, is of the low premium/high deductible sort. What has happened to them is what, I am sure, happens to tons of other people. After paying premiums for four years but never once meeting the deductible, $5000 I believe, for any of the four members of their family, their insurance company had not had to pay even one penny in actual coverage of a medical expense. Republicans (the Paul Ryan "plan") at both the federal and state levels (the "Healthy Minnesota Contribution Plan") seem eager to get everyone on a plan that pays little or -- as in the case of the dental tech -- nothing toward the cost of health care. Democrats in the legislature estimate that 100,000 to 125,000 people now on MinnesotaCare (premiums based on the ability to pay) will be priced out of the insurance market altogether if the state adopts the Republican plan.