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I don't have health insurance. I'm 26 and healthy. I could probably get insurance that I can afford, but with 4-digit deductibles, co-pays, rescissions and life

I don't have health insurance. I'm 26 and healthy. I could probably get insurance that I can afford, but with 4-digit deductibles, co-pays, rescissions and lifetime maximums in the mix, there's absolutely no point as I see it. If I get sick, I'll move everything important into someone else's name and declare bankruptcy... and if someone refuses to treat me because I can't pay, I have a "medical second" (this will be a booming business if we don't fix our healthcare mess) who will be healthy and able take care of the situation. The reason to buy insurance is not to have to worry about something, but insurance doesn't provide that because health insurers only pay out if they feel like it (e.g. if the future stream of premiums exceeds the cost of the claim). Our grandchildren are going to think of our times as barbaric. People had to buy insurance policies on their own bodies? It will sound to them like 96-hour workweeks for coal miners sound to us.

j_baker 17y ago
This is off the topic, but putting things in someone else's name before declaring bankruptcy is illegal. If you do so, you'd better hope your creditors don't find out.
- pw0ncakes 17y ago
  If the law permits the murder of tens of thousands every year by health insurers, then what is wrong (morally speaking) with breaking it, so long as one doesn't get caught? Law that allows such configurations as we have now has no moral authority. That doesn't mean I advocate most crimes. I wouldn't kill or rob someone except under extreme and highly improbable circumstances, but that's because those actions are wrong, not because they're illegal.
  - kreneskyp 17y ago
    he didn't mention anything about the morals of it. Just that your plan is likely to backfire.
    - pw0ncakes 17y ago
      My net worth is less than $10,000. I live in New York, so I neither own nor need a car. I think I could pull it off. I buy about $1000 of computer science textbooks that I've been meaning to buy, take a nice vacation, then put the rest into physical gold and hide it. It would be a huge hassle, but less life-ruining than medical debt is for people who are older and more established. 99% of what I own is the knowledge and skill I've gained over the years, and that can't be taken in BK. If my net worth were greater than $50,000, or if I had a wife and children to protect, I would have to buy health insurance. Realistically, if I thought I were about to get sick, I'd get on a health insurance plan as easily as I could. It'd be easier to bribe a doctor sufficient to hide a pre-X (post-date the intake forms) than to pull off bankruptcy fraud.
      - j_baker 17y ago
        "My net worth is less than $10,000." I doubt you'd even have to worry about it then. Chances are good you'd be able to keep most (if not all) of your stuff. (Insert standard IANAL disclaimers here)
        pw0ncakes 17y ago
        Right. If I had substantial net worth and owned a home, then I'd want to buy health insurance in order to protect those assets. I think this, more than that we're healthier, is one of the reasons people in their 20s opt out. Health insurance is useful in the semi-bad cases (e.g. a $25,000 one-off expenditure) but has plenty of mechanisms (life caps, rescissions) that enable it to abandon you anyway in event of catastrophe. We (young people) are as vulnerable as anyone else to catastrophes-- and if health insurance was any good during those, I might consider buying a plan-- but the mid-sized stuff rolls off of us because we're young and don't have much (materially) to lose. So why buy health insurance? I know my chance of preventable death is slightly higher, but not monstrously so.
- joshfinnie 17y ago
  Also, I am pretty sure there is a standard period "look-back" So unless you can do the transfer and then wait the subsequent time period before declaring bankruptcy, you are sol.

j_baker 17y ago

This is off the topic, but putting things in someone else's name before declaring bankruptcy is illegal. If you do so, you'd better hope your creditors don't find out.

pw0ncakes 17y ago
If the law permits the murder of tens of thousands every year by health insurers, then what is wrong (morally speaking) with breaking it, so long as one doesn't get caught? Law that allows such configurations as we have now has no moral authority. That doesn't mean I advocate most crimes. I wouldn't kill or rob someone except under extreme and highly improbable circumstances, but that's because those actions are wrong, not because they're illegal.
- kreneskyp 17y ago
  he didn't mention anything about the morals of it. Just that your plan is likely to backfire.
  - pw0ncakes 17y ago
    My net worth is less than $10,000. I live in New York, so I neither own nor need a car. I think I could pull it off. I buy about $1000 of computer science textbooks that I've been meaning to buy, take a nice vacation, then put the rest into physical gold and hide it. It would be a huge hassle, but less life-ruining than medical debt is for people who are older and more established. 99% of what I own is the knowledge and skill I've gained over the years, and that can't be taken in BK. If my net worth were greater than $50,000, or if I had a wife and children to protect, I would have to buy health insurance. Realistically, if I thought I were about to get sick, I'd get on a health insurance plan as easily as I could. It'd be easier to bribe a doctor sufficient to hide a pre-X (post-date the intake forms) than to pull off bankruptcy fraud.
    - j_baker 17y ago
      "My net worth is less than $10,000." I doubt you'd even have to worry about it then. Chances are good you'd be able to keep most (if not all) of your stuff. (Insert standard IANAL disclaimers here)
      - pw0ncakes 17y ago
        Right. If I had substantial net worth and owned a home, then I'd want to buy health insurance in order to protect those assets. I think this, more than that we're healthier, is one of the reasons people in their 20s opt out. Health insurance is useful in the semi-bad cases (e.g. a $25,000 one-off expenditure) but has plenty of mechanisms (life caps, rescissions) that enable it to abandon you anyway in event of catastrophe. We (young people) are as vulnerable as anyone else to catastrophes-- and if health insurance was any good during those, I might consider buying a plan-- but the mid-sized stuff rolls off of us because we're young and don't have much (materially) to lose. So why buy health insurance? I know my chance of preventable death is slightly higher, but not monstrously so.
joshfinnie 17y ago
Also, I am pretty sure there is a standard period "look-back" So unless you can do the transfer and then wait the subsequent time period before declaring bankruptcy, you are sol.