Wow--so if I get smashed up on my bicycle by a hit-and-run, I can talk them down to $250? Amazing! If you have assets, carry insurance to protect those assets.

Wow--so if I get smashed up on my bicycle by a hit-and-run, I can talk them down to $250? Amazing! If you have assets, carry insurance to protect those assets. Maybe you get lucky with no insurance and come out ahead in the casket, but if you lose, you can lose big. I have exceptional insurance through work now, but when I didn't, I carried high-deductible insurance with an out-of-network max-out-of-pocket. They might get me for 12 grand, but they had to weasel a lot harder to get me to pay more. Also, I've been blessed with pretty good health. But my total hospital bill for life is probably about $250,000 due to a ruptured appendix. (The work was in a socialist hospital so I didn't get a bill--that's just my estimate.) > Insurers can’t refuse to cover you or charge you more due to a "pre-existing condition." This is absolutely true, however one does not simply buy insurance outside of open enrollment; you'd best hope you only get sick or injured in that particular month.