09:51 PM CDT on Thursday, May 5, 2005

By JANET ST. JAMES / WFAA-TV

Desperate times call for desperate measures when it comes to the insurance game.

As experts announced Thursday, the uninsured rate in Dallas and Tarrant counties exceeds both state and national averages. And of the 45 million Americans without health insurance, nearly a third are of college age.

An insurance technicality millions of people have in their plans but don't think about left one North Texas family facing a bank-breaking bill.

On January 1, 21-year-old Dyan Daniels was in a catastrophic accident riding an all-terrain vehicle.

"I guess I hit a rock and lost control of the wheel and slammed into a tree," Daniels said.

But taking a break from college meant she was automatically dropped from her parents' health plan.

"It dawned on me, when we were waiting in the emergency room for CareFlite to get her there, that she had no insurance," said mother Karen.

As she lay in the ICU at Harris Methodist Hospital with multiple skull fractures, three cracked vertebrae and a broken wrist, the bills started rolling in.

First, a few hundred, then a few thousand dollars at a time - all adding up to more than $100,000.

The Daniels held a family meeting.

"Every one of us were talking about how they could contribute, how much money, how we could sell or come up with loans," said brother Nick.

Harris Methodist chief financial officer Cordel Musch said every day, they must bill people who cannot pay - because in the end medical care isn't free.

"It does bother you," Musch said. "We do our best to find insurance, and failing that we try to work with everybody."

The hospital found charity to cover most of Dyan Daniels' bills, though the family still paid tens of thousands of dollars themselves.

And for the first time, Dyan is facing a very grown-up decision: buying health insurance of her own.