No offense intended. Wish we could all afford to keep enough liquid assets to cover all health needs. In an imperfect world we do need health insurance. I am not a fan of how it is run — in the least — but was trying to point out the necessity of coming to an agreement on how to cover the costs for at least most of the people

It took a crap load of discipline. And once I got laid off, it really benefited me because I had the nasty combination of being w/o job and real sick. The costs didn’t even put a nick in what I had put away. I wish it could have been pre-tax though. If I had done the insurance route, I wouldn’t have been that fortunate.

I think the need for insurance needs to be better discussed, because there are other ways to do it. I liked the Blue Shield method until they went for profit. That is why I proposed the ‘exercise’. When people have to pay for something in monthly increments, they usually forget what the total cost ends up being. Can anyone quickly state what multiple of the initial purchase price that one eventually pays when using a mortgage? ‘the bill’ eventually has to be paid somehow. Either it is effectively from money saved or by distributing the costs. Insurance does not make it go away automagically. Insurance is most effective for managing risks, not for driving down the cost. Right now the biggest problem we have is run-away costs.