Young and without insurance
I don’t have health insurance.
The newspaper I work for offers a plan, but I’ve been putting off signing up for it in favor of saving a buck. I have rent and other expenses every month, and like millions of other Americans in their 20s, I’ve been arrogant and put health insurance at the bottom of my priority list just so I can feel comfortable with my expenses.
NY Magazine has published an article about people like me: A Generation Uninsured, and it’s scary. It begins with an anecdote about a person named Andrew Ondrejcak who wakes up with a sharp pain in his side, and rather than going to see a doctor, he tries to ride it out. It describes his own mental agonizing over how to find a doctor while uninsured, how much it’s going to cost him, and the hassle of having to eventually be rushed to the hospital.
Like I said, as someone who could very well be placed in his situation, it’s scary. I think at the end of this month I’m going to make it a priority to join up with the company plan finally and get it over with.
Got covered yet?
Before I make a trip to the States again, I have to remember to pick some up. It’s about $100CND for a year’s worth.
Insurance in all its forms is a con game. Percentages. When I was a thin young adult, I did the math as follows (although be warned –I never made it thru calculus).
Axiom #1: the big money recipient is always & forever the insurance industry itself, along with its empowering bureaucratic running dogs, at least the “alpha” ones.
Axiom #2: just cuz i say “running dogs” don’t mean I’m a Lousy Commie Pinko.
Axiom #3: those that gets the most of the measly-leftover crumbs are the old and/or decrepit people, since they are the ones who tend to have chronic illnesses & then die.
Inescapable conclusion: Young folk buying insurance get to experience the biggest and most painfully bulbous end of the golden money shaft that is, metaphorically speaking, the health insurance “industry.”
Actually I guess the above is more “logic” than “math”…
Don’t feel too bad, young whippersnapper. I mean, emotion-wise, not health-wise.
Luv
Uncle Simon