Sick pay: 9 stories of health costs
From $10,000 deductibles to no coverage at all, CNNMoney.com readers and viewers reveal their battle with the rising costs of health insurance.
My assets, including social security, are finite but sufficient to keep me off whatever welfare is called these days. And because my finances are so finite, I am utterly unwilling to pay hundreds of dollars a year for insurance.
Many years ago, all of us took to marathon running and there was a guy in the marathon world who said, "I have two doctors -- my right leg and my left leg." I basically walk, and I take very good care of myself. It is a bit of hubris, if you want to call it that, but I just don't think I will be a broken old bag of bones until I am 72, so I am taking my chances. My mother lived to 83 and never saw a doctor.
I use the Judson Clinic on a pay-as-I-go basis. So, for $20, I can see a doctor. For an additional $10 to $20 every 30 days, I can pick up a generic prescription at the clinic. If it is catastrophic event, which it has been a few times (appendicitis, broken elbow, etc), I have gone to Bellevue Emergency for care.
All I have to do is go two more years from this July and I will be entitled to whatever medical care goes to seniors.
If you have an asset, an apartment, a car, anything more than the cash you have in the market, then of course you are going to get insurance to cover that. But I have lost so much in this market that I am about to take off for South East Asia to take a look if I can live there. I am having all my shots done in South East Asia, where they are 20% of the price.
In an emergency, it is possible that I will lose it all. I am willing to bet that I won't. I have an ex-husband and no kids.
My thoughts on universal health care: I can see universal health care as an option and a goal, but we already have it with Medicare/Medicaid. And public healthcare is sloppy.
NEXT: John Pierpont: $313
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