[msk]

Hi NL,

Medical Insurance is all about catastrophic illness, in my opinion, for a person in their 20's who is healthy. Let's say it will cost you $3000-6000 per year for a medical insurance policy: It you get really really sick or hit by a car, will you die waiting for treatment because you do not have the insurance card in your pocket? Will you owe the hospital a fortune (if you are lucky enough to get decent treatment) so they take everything from you? Or maybe you have middle class parents who do not want you to
die in a public hospital? Will the $100k or $200k bill clean them out?

I am lucky enough to have made some $$$, and these are the reasons I pay for my grad school son's insurance policy. Those were the questions I asked myself.

Some stories: My rich uncle did not believe in insurance (after he fought through the islands (e.g. Tarawa) in WWII
he wasn't quite himself afterwards). When his wife got sick in her 60's he went to the hospital with a suitcase full of money. He was much less rich afterwards. Before my old dad died a few yrs ago, his insurance policies (he was a veteran of WWII also and a retired govt employee) paid the hospital about $750k for his last months.

I love America, I grew up in the projects and I now run a corporation. But given our priorities, which is a topic for another forum, if you can afford basic catastrophe insurance and don't have it you are very foolish. If you cannot, I am sorry.

MK