Robert Reich has some comments about youth not wanting to purchase health insurance...

[Playinghardball]

[Tx4obama]

1. 4) He may break a leg or become seriously ill while still young and need insurance. n/t

[SharonAnn]

8. I just checked my bill on my broken wrist and surgery. $20,000 K.

Obviously, this was an unplanned fracture. It couldn't be set without surgery and some hardware to hold the pieces together so they could heal in the correct position. Without insurance, I would've been responsible for the entire $20,000 K.

Or I could've done without treatment and had a deformed wrist and unusable hand for the rest of my life.

That's one of the reasons for insurance. Treatment for accidents! They're expensive!

[NYC_SKP]

2. K/R but it would help if Public Schools could depart from testing-based curriculum to meaningful....

...to meaningful material.

Let's restore civics and environmental stewardship and the manual arts and crafts to schools.

eom.

[RandySF]

3. I don't understand these kids.

Even when I was much younger, I appreciated having health insurance.

[Journeyman]

6. When I was 30 (still on the cusp of immortality) I was hospitalized with a totally unexpected ulcer…

I had just started a new job and was just weeks from qualifying for insurance. I didn't have Cobra (it had run out as I bounced from job to job), but my wife asked me just a week or so before if I wanted to get on her insurance, which had just expanded to cover spouses. For some fortuitous reason I agreed. Had I not, those unexpected bills would have wiped out our savings and plunged us into debt. Without insurance, we would never have been able to afford the home we bought two years later, the home we paid off a few years back.

So yeah, even immortals need insurance to guard against the unforeseen if nothing else.

[WillyT]

4. K & R !!!

[gulliver]

5. Well, you do it so you are covered.

That way when you go to the hospital or clinic for something, you aren't humiliated by having to admit you don't have insurance. Or worse, you could get stuck with a quick $10,000 bill that will take you years to pay off.

[BlueStreak]

7. One thing has not been explained well enough

Insurance companies can no longer refuse you if you already have a disease. However, it you miss the open enrollment, you can't get insurance until the following January 1. This year's long open enrollment is the exception. After this one time, open enrollment is Nov 15 - Jan 15. https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/open-enrollment-period/

So let's say you are feeling great as of January 14, so you decide to get no insurance. If you get sick (or injured) any time from January 16 - November 14, those costs are on you.

So as immortal as they may feel, these people are gambling with some very high stakes. Maybe nothing will happen. But maybe they will get hit with $100,000 costs they can't cover, and will have to go bankrupt. That could be enough to set tem back financially the rest of their lives.

Or worse than that, if they get a really expensive disease, they may find that charity care will not get them the treatment they really need for the best chances of survival.

Most young people don't suffer those events. So how lucky do you feel? And if this isn't the year for insurance, when is? 5 years more? 10 years more? When do you think your immortality powers might start to weaken?

The insurance for a young person is not very expensive -- around $200/month for a 27-year old, e.g., or less if you qualify for a subsidy. Just do it.