You don't frighten us, English pig dogs. Go and boil your bottoms, you sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so called Arthur King, you and all your silly English Ki-nig-hits
You're right, they're not even close. A moderately serious condition or accident will cost far more than that. Friend of mine skipped going to the dentist for a few years - didn't have the money, or couldn't get the dentist up to the top of his priority list. Woke up Christmas morning two years ago with an abcess the size of a baseball. Had to go to the emergency room, cost him $10K just to deal with the abcess - and then he had the dental work to deal with. He'd have done a lot better to get his teeth checked up once in a while.
But the medical bills are only the start of it - the societal costs are huge, and harder to estimate, but they're the reason the health care business is such a big deal. It's not that we care about you and your kids, it's that you and your kids not having insurance takes money out of everyone's pocket. That's why it's a free rider problem.
Your friend not going to the dentist was his decision. He choose not to take care of his teeth. Even though someone has no insurance, it costs $50 to $100 for a dentist visit/cleaning. He had to go to the ER and now he has to pay $10,000. Had he known there was a problem occuring from yearly checkups, there may have been a chance for him to get some sort of insurance.
Got that. My point is that kes166's desire to not pay for health insurance is more like the person who wants to drive and not pay for liability coverage than it is like the person who doesn't want to pay liability, and so doesn't drive.
I think you are misunderstanding my point. If I wasn't able to afford auto insurance, I wouldn't use a car. Auto insurance, however, is rather important as it takes me an hour to drive to work which puts auto insurance high on my list of priorities.
I haven't been sick for awhile, however I have 2 kids. My kids are insured through Chip which takes the burden off me to need to have insurance. If I had insurance it would make it easier for me to find a dentist for my kids, but as it is, the way things are working out for me now is adequate, so I have no need for health insurance for myself. My wife occasional gets sick, but it's usually not bad. If there's anything that requires a doctor, there's a clinic rather close to my house where I can go for $50 and get medicine for that price in addition to seeing a doctor. I'm also a vet, so if I break a leg or something, I can drive down to the VA hospital in the next city and get treated for free. My only concern would be my wife having a serious illness.
