The point of insurance is to protect you against unlikely but damaging events. You are generally happy to pay premiums in all the years that nothing goes wrong, because in exchange your insurer promises to be there in the one year that things do go wrong. So when you are shopping for insurance, you should look for a company that is financially sound – so they will be there when you need them.

Like most people, you get health coverage through your employer or your spouse’s employer. At some point in the future, you might get sick and need expensive health care. There are a variety of things that could cause you to lose your health coverage, such as:

• Your company could drop its health plan. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of the population covered by employer-based health insurance has fallen every year since 2000, from 64.2% to 59.3%.
• You could lose your job.
• You could voluntarily leave your job, for example because you have to move to take care of an elderly relative.
• You could get divorced from the spouse you depend on for health coverage.

For all of these reasons, you can’t always count on your health insurer being there when you need it.