10 Comments

One argument would probably be that you could have a very rare event that totally ruins your life because you don't have health insurance. The probability of it happening is possibly so small that it's not financially worth it strictly, but might be worth it from a utility maximization standpoint. There is also the moral argument that other's might have to take on your burden in the event of something catastrophic and that you are reaping the awards but externalizing the probabilistic cost. A person who can afford to have health insurance, couldn't afford a catastrophe, but is using that money for BS, is externalizing costs onto society, unless they would turn down assistance. This seems kind of immoral. I don't know enough about your situation exactly. Seems like you have enough that you would just pay bills for a long time.

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Is there a fallacy here in trying to think too much about fairness/limits/billing/etc? If we abstract ourselves from the complexities of the system, we end up with:

1. Your yearly premium in the low end plan is $4800

2. Your annual out-of-pocket cap is $8000

3. Your total annual cost is $12800 in the worst case scenario

If you were employed by a company, a similar amount (https://www.kff.org/report-section/ehbs-2020-summary-of-findings/) would be paid on your behalf by your employer and thus effectively paid by yourself as an invisible tax. If you were instead living in Europe or Canada where they have "universal healthcare", you'd instead lose money by paying higher income taxes, so you won't be better off than before.

So if you want to feel like you've got "universal healthcare" - you can! Just pretend you're spending the $12800 no matter what and go get whatever treatments you need.

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I feel like I can't even have an opinion on health insurance because I 1) require really good health insurance and need it and 2) pay through the nose to get it. Since I'm likely a leech despite paying so much (and able to thank goodness) ive always felt bad complaining.

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You need to get married and have a spouse with insurance where the company will also include you. That is the only way I managed for the last 20 years. One person I know did a fake marriage to get the insurance.

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