I shot a 16d nail between my ring and little finger last summer and have a knee that comes out of joint sometimes, necessitating I pop it back in joint, from an 800 ft parachute fall back in 1975. I do dangerous stuff too but never felt the need to pay for insurance. I guess I’m just oldskool.

Back in 1992 our son was diagnosed with scoliosis and the Drs. told us to hook up with the Shriners who will pick up the tab for the $90k operation to route out both sides of his spine and install steel rods. No way. We found a Dr in Louisiana that could fix him without surgery but the Shriners wouldn’t go for that and we had to pay the $40k cost from our own pocket. We didn’t whine and we didn’t beg. We circled our wagons, cinched our belts up a notch and paid the thing off in 2 years. We did the same thing 5 years prior when our son needed $3k worth of dental work. Thats how grown ups act and serve as direction for their children on how responsible people live.

We now live in a world full of children of all ages.
And the politicians act like the drunken step fathers.

BTW: When I was single and used to fly internationally I’d buy that $500k policy from the American Express kiosk in the airport, assuring the plane wouldn’t crash and make my mother rich.

@ Don – The policy I bought is a little more than catastrophic so it covers me in case of emergency. Dave and I go skiing out west every year in some wicked terrain. So its merely to protect myself in case I make a wrong turn and fall off a 30 foot cliff and wreck myself. Another reason is because I saw my buddy get bitten by a Copperhead Snake this year and the ambulance alone was $500. On a day to day basis I don’t need more than that. I’m actually thinking about getting the one under that and just paying for Dr. visits.

Dave – I guess I needed to use a different word then reform. I’m still learning how all of this stuff is connected. I’m no expert but at least I’m willing to learn unlike my Uncle who flat out told me to F off when I told him to read just one of the books I’ve read which makes me think how I do now. Like you said, if you refuse to recognize the problem then I can’t talk to you. It becomes a “your too young to understand” thing where basically he throws up on my FB page without any solutions to the problem.

Second, why in the world would anybody pay $80 a month for something like that? Seems like all this *health* related stuff has become majorly stylish over the past 20 years or so and everybody wants to be on the catwalk.

My parents never had insurance on themselves or any of us 5 kids, I have never had insurance on myself or my son, who is now 30, and never figured out the reason for it.

Was looking over this thing yesterday http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/health_insurance/9189/adultbasic_benefit_chanages/646477 and came to the conclusion that most of the stuff I consider routine self-maintenance a lot of other people have been trained to believe is a necessary thing to hire other people to do or have been brainwashed into thinking they need to have it done by somebody. A yearly physical exam? Come on. Who has the time or money for such silliness? I’m 55 and haven’t had one since I left the army in 1978.

I’ve got all kinds of working solutions for all this “health care” nonsense but I won’t litter this blog with stuff that every grown up should already be aware of concerning self maintenance issues.

Suffice to say, the Rule of 8 applies here, when the gov’t gets involved the costs skyrocket and quality plummets, just like it always does and herd members are delusional idiots.

And please, spare me the *what if* situations.

Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die…..