You'd want to talk to a professional to see if this would work for you, but maybe start saving with a Roth IRA? My understanding is that you could withdraw your contributions at any time without any tax penalty, and there are some situations where you could withdraw your earnings without a huge penalty. One situation is if you have unreimbursed medical expenses that are more than 10% of your adjusted gross income, you wouldn't have to pay the 10% penalty tax on the earnings if you've had the IRA for 5 years.

The main advantage of an IRA over a savings account is that if you follow the rules you get a tax break - either in the year you contribute (traditional IRA) or when you get the earnings (Roth IRA). There is also a saver's credit if you are low to moderate income - check out IRS Publication 590 for details.

Interest rates right now for any type of savings are crap, and will probably be crap for at least two years, so I think the tax advantages of an IRA will be helpful. I know that BECU has IRA CDs paying 0.95% interest for two years with at least $500 put in, which is a lot less of an initial investment than other places I've looked - you usually have to have $2500 to get started.

If you don't have a savings account with three to six months of expenses saved up you should probably work on that first, or at least save for both at the same time. And make a plan to reduce debt, of course, if you have any.

It really really sucks that we live in a society where people have to declare bankruptcy for medical bills. I hope that things will change so you won't have to worry about that - take care of yourself in the meantime, and make sure you're not scrimping so much that you don't have enough money to enjoy life.