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Simple living, working for yourself, and the health insurance quandry
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There is no "rule" that says in order to live simply you have to work for yourself. There are many people who live simply who also have regular jobs. However, many people who have those jobs keep them for one reason: health insurance. For those who do choose to venture out on their own, health insurance is one of the biggest headaches. For many people it is viewed as a necessary evil. They hate having to pay for it every month, but they dread the thought of being without it since one medical emergency can just about wipe out the average family.
A recent Reuters article highlighted the fact that even having insurance doesn't necessarily mean everything will be well if you are sick:
Medical bills are behind more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday in a report they said demonstrates that healthcare reform is on the wrong track.
More than 75 percent of these bankrupt families had health insurance but still were overwhelmed by their medical debts, the team at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University reported in the American Journal of Medicine.
"Unless you're Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy," Harvard's Dr. David Himmelstein, an advocate for a single-payer health insurance program for the United States, said in a statement.
National columnist Laura Rowley recent explored this topic in her Money & Happiness blog in a post entitled Give Up Health Insurance? in which she observes:
As health care reform moves ahead in Congress, I hope our elected officials understand this: Millions of people – the lucky ones who actually have insurance – have what Harvard Law School’s Elizabeth Warren has called “faux health insurance.” That is, we may be better off spending those premium payments on a personal trainer and a nutritionist, because we may end up bankrupt anyway if we get sick. (Or instead of the trainer, put the premiums into the bank, and if you do get sick, use the money to go overseas and explore the joys of medical tourism.)
Regardless of a person's views on health care reform, one thing is certain. Health insurance is a sticky wicket for those desiring to live simply. For those who freelance or own their own business, it costs a small fortune each month to maintain that faux health insurance. And yet it is a difficult step to make the decision to go without it. Only time will tell how this will unfold in our culture and whether the powers that be will find any realistic answers to this dilemma.
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