After a time, I looked online for affordable health coverage (an oxymoron if there ever was one). I pondered paying an exorbitant amount for catastrophic coverage, but after about 22 seconds, realized that it just wasn't justified.
Other than being curious about my cholesterol numbers, I've had no reason to see the doctor over the past year. Even if I had affordable coverage, I'd be down more than a grand as most health insurance costs more than a hundred dollars a month.
I haven't been extra careful when walking down the street (avoiding black cats, wearing glasses that are practical as opposed to fashionable, not telling smokers they smell like shit) as I feel that whatever happens, happens.
Circumstances have changed of late that lead me to believe I'll be back among those who are covered in the near future, but I have to admit to getting a bit of a kick out of not being covered. It's kinda like getting up every morning and heading to work without wearing drawers. I can certainly see the appeal it has for twentysomethings.
7 comments:
As long as you stay healthy it's fine but it's ruinous if something happens and you don't have any. Glad to hear you made it through that time clean. I too went years without it when I was younger with no issues.
It is difficult for me to comprehend what it must be like to not have automatic health cover by the state. Yes we moan about our national health service over here and once or twice we have paid for private consultations from consultants when the kids were younger, but we always have the knowledge that the NHS is always there for us!
I went without health insurance for about a year and a half after college until I got my first "real" job that had benefits (the job I had at the time didn't provide benefits). I was incredibly fortunate not to get sick or injured during that time.
Honestly, losing my insurance was one of the scariest things about losing my job in August. I have coverage through the temp agency, but it's not very good. I'm hoping to get hired permanently (and therefore have better insurance) before I need to use insurance again.
and you think aggressive 401(k) investments are risky?
Yep, you guys definitely need universal health care. It's just a no brainer. Ours isn't perfect up here, but I wouldn't trade it for any kind of tax cut.
People might complain about government control extending it's tentacles, but hey, that's what democracy is for.
Tom, look into a HSA is you are ever going to buy a policy. You can get a super cheap policy in case of something major, they wont cover anything under 15,000. Then you go to the bank and open an HSA account. You can pay into it as you like (caps apply), write it off on your taxes and pay no taxes when you use it for a doctor or whatever.
The savings account can be rolled over year to year and if you retire with money in the account you can take it out for ANY reason.
If you are somewhat healthy its one thing to look into.
And under the new proposed law, you would be fined for not having insurance...
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