(MONEY Magazine) – Q My husband and I recently moved to New Hampshire, where he is self-employed and I'm looking for work. We previously got our health care at group rates through Kaiser Permanente's HMO (I used to work for the company). I could have kept the coverage -- which saw me through two major-medical problems -- but I dropped out because it cost $300 a month and the closest Kaiser facility is now four hours away. Now we can't get affordable insurance. What can we do? Carol Rarick Hooksett, N.H.

A If the Kaiser clinic weren't so far away, I'd say beg them to take you back. Although $300 a month is a ton of money, it's cheaper than you are likely to find outside of an employee group. Indeed, readers with routine medical problems have written me complaining about quotes for individual policies that go as high as $650 a month. But what's done is done. Your best bet now is to find a new job that enrolls you in an affordable group policy. Failing that, have your husband join the New England Business Association, a trade group for self-employed people, which offers two HMOs (about $330 a month with a $500 deductible) and a Blue Cross/Blue Shield policy ($350 a month with a $1,000 deductible). Unfortunately, the HMOs might reject you because of your previous medical problems. Blue Cross/Blue Shield takes all comers, but you might have to wait as long as nine months for coverage of your pre-existing conditions. (While New Hampshire's Blues have financial problems, Robert Warren, director of the life and health division of the New Hampshire insurance department, says that the situation is improving and that the state's Blues are now reasonably sound. For more, see Money Update, page 27.) Whatever you do, though, do it immediately. You can't afford to be without health insurance.

Q I recently came into possession of a silk U.S. flag with 49 stars. Because we had that many states only briefly -- between Jan. 3, 1959, when Alaska joined the Union, and Aug. 21, 1959, when Hawaii was admitted -- I thought the flag might have some value as a collector's item. Does it? Douglas W. Johnson, M.D. Jacksonville

A In the recent flurry of patriotism, I thought your 49-star oddity would be worth puh-lenty. So I consulted a leading vexillologist (a student of flags -- remember that word for Scrabble). Alas, Whitney Smith of the Flag Research Center in Winchester, Mass. notes with a sigh that your flag is one of several million manufactured in 1959. What makes a flag valuable is age, unique design or historical significance. A 13-star flag made at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1800, for example, is worth about $4,000. Yours is worth not much more than the cloth it's made from.

Q I recently read about a kind of bond called an equipment trust certificate. I am retired and want to invest safely for income. Is an ETC a wise investment for someone like me? Donald Kershan Plainview, N.Y.

A No way. The certificates -- which are issued by airlines and other transportation companies to buy new equipment -- are designed to be bought by big-cheese institutional investors, not small but worthy potatoes like yourself. Even many of the pros are sorry they ever heard of ETCs, since at least $1.3 billion of the certificates are now in default. Any investor playing this game has to make sure not only that the issuer can pay the interest but also that the equipment will be worth enough to cover the outstanding debt if the company happens to go bankrupt -- as airlines have been doing with alarming frequency these days. For safety in retirement, stick to government securities, high-grade corporate bonds and similarly boring stuff.

Q After my husband's divorce and our marriage last year, we found ourselves $55,000 in debt (credit cards and payments for two cars). We have cut up our credit cards, limited our personal expenses and begun to save $600 a month out of our total income of $74,000 a year. Despite our efforts, we both despair of ever getting out of debt. Any advice? Name withheld on request Berwyn, Ill.

A The plan you describe is a step in the right direction but, as you've discovered, it doesn't go far enough. If you're paying an average interest rate of 15%, you could devote a fifth of your after-tax income to debt repayment -- about $10,000 a year -- and it would still take you about 12 years to clean up the mess. You could try saving $20,000 annually, which would get you out of debt in less than four years, but that's like going on one of those starvation diets that you give up after 20 minutes. So here's a plan that falls somewhere in between: First, sell one of your cars; that should retire about $5,000 of debt, and besides, your friends will be impressed when your devoted husband comes to pick you up after work -- or vice versa. Then gnaw on the bullet and pay $20,000 toward your debt for one year. You can then ease up a little bit, paying $15,000 the next year, $12,500 the third year and $10,000 a year for the remaining two to three years. Then when you're finally ) out from under, take yourselves out to dinner at a good restaurant -- but pay the check in cash.