Each company has different rules regarding whether they will cover pre-existing conditions or not and how much they will charge for each plan. All of the health insurance plans provided on this site are registered with the California Department of Insurance and are guaranteed to be the exact same price no matter where you buy them. Individual insurance can actually be cheaper health insurance than the group health insurance that you would get at a large company. This is because the group health insurance is guaranteed to cover everybody regardless of how sick they are, so everybody in the plan shares the cost for the few people who cost a lot of money to treat. With individual insurance the health insurance companies assess how much they think it will cost them to treat you and set the price according to your own personal health conditions. Individual insurance, once it is granted, cannot be cancelled due to illness. There is a federal law called HIPAA that mandates that the insurance companies must offer you health coverage with reasonable prices and no pre-existing condition exclusions. Insurance rates also vary significantly depending upon where you live. Long Beach, California Health Insurance rates are some of the lowest in California, whereas San Francisco and Los Angeles health insurance rates are typically a bit higher.