re: #657 sattv4u2

You cannot in any practicality “opt out” of health care entirely

Really? So my 26 year old single male co-worker who decided last year NOT to buy a company offered health plan and instead get that money in his paycheck each week and has a “rainy day fnd” because he’s young and strong and fit and figures whatever comes along he’ll deal with it ,,, HE wasn;’t able to “opt out”

Hmmm,,, and here I thought he had ,, only because ,,well HE HAD !

I am still correct. if your friend’s rainyday fund is depleted, he will still get treatment at an ER.

How big IS his rainyday fund? $20,000? $100,000? My partner had a hernia, that cost us thousands of dollars to treat. And he had some insurance, it just didn’t cover much. How much do you think a stay in the hospital costs? Per night? How much do you think emergency surgery costs? I hit my head once, passed out, so my friends called an ambulance. Before I had insurance. The ambulance ride and the ER visit (needed 6 stitches) was over a thousand bucks, and I was barely in the ER at all. Imagine if I had broken something!

Is your friend so young and strong that if a Ford F150 clips him at a crosswalk in a hit-and-run, he’ll just shrug off the fractured skull, broken ribs, persistent vertigo, and internal injuries? He’ll tough it out? Happened to a friend of mine who was also young and strong, picture of health. Now he walks with a cane and he’ll have to likely for the rest of his life. He had insurance, but he’s still essentially bankrupt.

“Rainy day fund.” Hyyyeah. Whatevs.