No insurance? Here’s where to go when…

You’ve got a toothache: The clinic at NYU’s College of Dentistry provides care for 30 percent to 50 percent less than what you would pay out of pocket:A checkup and cleaning is $50 to $90, a filling is $70 to $110.

You want drugs: Wal-Mart now offers 331 generic prescription drugs at the flat rate of $4—everything from antidepressants to prenatal vitamins. Worth buying a New Jersey Transit ticket to the big-box store in Secaucus.

You need birth control: Planned Parenthood is still the gold standard for inexpensive gynecological care. Patients are charged on a sliding scale at the Brooklyn clinic: An exam ranges from $39 to $116, birth-control pills from $5 to $15.

You have an emergency: Go to a city-owned hospital (for a list, go to nyc.gov/hhc), where, thanks to a sliding scale, single adults earning less than $38,280 pay $15 to $60 for ER services, and $5,000 max if they are hospitalized.

You decide you need insurance: If you freelance twenty hours a week, call the Freelancers Union (from $127 a month for catastrophic). If you make less than $25,000 a year, try the state-run Healthy NY program (from $145 a month).

Related:

• Archive: “Cover Story”
• Articles by David Amsden
• Table of Contents: Apr 2, 2007 issue of New York | Subscribe!