For a young, single, healthy person, independent health insurance is not an issue. Once you have a whole family living under your umbrella and multiple medical

For a young, single, healthy person, independent health insurance is not an issue. Once you have a whole family living under your umbrella and multiple medical history trails 10 years long to explain on your application, it can easily become your largest recurring expense. Barring personal catastrophe and unless they fall into the consumption pattern described in the article, most continually-employed professionals are entirely capable of reaching a cash-only, everything's paid-for state by the age of 50, sooner if they don't go the marriage/family route. Health insurance isn't one of those things to ever check off though. Your age increases your risk premium and all rates inflate every year so it costs more and more until you reach the Medicare age, and even then, it still doesn't go away. If the US matched the rest of the civilized world with respect to healthcare, you can bet we'd see professional people more mobile and retiring sooner.