I don't want health insurance

College Confidential Community
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<p>“Never seen a dorm room not have a kitchen, at least 1 per building”</p>

<p>I see. That wasn’t true when I was in college. Still, it doesn’t seem to be the intent of the eligibility criteria. Here’s what I fond about Oregon. Other googling seems to suggest you have to be working or Unfit to work. As a taxpayer, I’m comfortable with that.</p>

<p>[Food</a> Stamps - D. Nonfinancial Eligibility](<a href=“http://dhsmanuals.hr.state.or.us/EligManual/06FS-D1.htm#Students]Food”>http://dhsmanuals.hr.state.or.us/EligManual/06FS-D1.htm#Students)</p>

<p>This is interesting</p>

<p>Typically, Medicaid eligibility is restricted to individuals in a family with a dependent child. Section 5004 creates a new eligibility group that would include college students, adults without children, and even adults in a household that has significant income but little or no income for the applicant. Moreover, applicants would not have to prove their citizenship before their “presumptive eligibility” is determined.</p>

<p>[How</a> the House Stimulus Bill Undercuts Parental Authority](<a href=“http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:p3GY3Rq1JxkJ:www.heritage.org/research/healthcare/wm2237.cfm+medicaid+eligibility+college+students&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=39&gl=us&client=firefox-a]How”>http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:p3GY3Rq1JxkJ:www.heritage.org/research/healthcare/wm2237.cfm+medicaid+eligibility+college+students&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=39&gl=us&client=firefox-a)</p>

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<p>I have been thinking of doing a risk analysis as AuburnMathTutor suggested. I have a feeling that the expected values would weigh in favor of not getting insurance, but the question is how risk adverse are you?</p>

<p>I would consider myself relatively risk neutral when it comes to most things although with health I may be somewhat more adverse. I would expect the risk of a major health problem be less than 1%/year (although I’ll estimate at 1%), and the expected benefit to be $500/year minimally. Expected risk = ~$200 assuming a risk of $20,000 at 1%. If I was absolutely risk neutral, then I should go without insurance.</p>

<p>Yes everyone, I understand I may need an operation, I may get cancer, I may be in an accident, and I may have a heart attack, which would mean I’m screwed. Btw, I find it hard to believe that a heart attack would cost me 500k maybe 50k. Anyway, the risks are there, but if we’re going into those possibilities why doesn’t my family get earthquake, flood, or nuclear accident (does this exist?) insurance also? What if a foreign army invades and destroys my house (haha, ok a stretch)? Those things could devastate my life, and I’m screwed if they happen. I’m not going to consider covering myself (if possible) for these things. Albeit these my have slightly less risk of occurring and aren’t directly effecting my health, I’m simply trying to explain some people’s reasoning. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to be insured for I price I find acceptable, but I haven’t found it yet.</p>

<p>My family has been on food stamps before and I thought it was primarily based on income, but I’m sure a just case has to be made to the case/social worker. I’ll investigate my Medicaid eligibility when I get the chance. </p>

<p>Btw, I don’t pay quite 50k for school. Actually, I pay far less than what most pay for state schools and sorry I used the word loophole instead of “use the system”. I agree Dr. Horse many college students aren’t ready for everyday things and have to figure it out for themselves whereas most students sit back and study when mom and dad take care of everything else in their lives. I’m not one to do something because it is the “right” or normal thing to do. I analyze every major decision I make by gathering as much info as possible and making what I believe is the best choice. My “common sense” or rationality tells me this isn’t a cut and dry issue.</p>

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<p>When I got hospitalized for a few hours it cost approximately $1000. At your age, as a matter of fact at ANY age, it’s possible to go mad. My family did not re-new the insurance or whatever so they kept nagging us with the bill for months until we got around to it.
Just do it, man.</p>

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<p>idk how it works in Oregon, but In NY any person who makes under $600 or so a month is eligible for Medicaid.</p>

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<p>It would be a good idea to see if you can get at least catastrophic coverage- something with a low premium, and high deductable. If you only get a little sick - colds, flu, that kind of thing, you can pay for things like prescriptions out of pocket and end up spending less overall. But you’ll be glad you have the policy in the event of something severe- you’re hit by a car, or get badly injured playing sports, etc.</p>

<p>My junior year of college, my ankle was absolutely destroyed during a lacrosse game (worst St. Patrick’s Day ever!). The total bill for the reconstructive surgery and hospitalization/ ambulance charges came to almost 30K. All but about three grand of that was covered by insurance. You don’t need a comprehensive policy if you’re in good health, but you’ll want something for if something really bad happens.</p>

<p>The statistics are great, but for an individual, it comes down to four possible scenarios: Whether you need it or not, and whether you have it or not, and the combination of the two. Odds are you won’t need any major medical care as a college student, but better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.</p>

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<p>Get the insurance. You are quite healthy, but unexpected things happen. I have a quite healthy nephew who injured his ankle and had no insurance. $1000 about covered his first visit to the emergency room to get a cast. My son got Lyme disease from a tiny bug bite. We didn’t figure it out at first till he ended up at a hospital - the diagnostics for that would have been well over $1000. A trip in a private amulance costs around $1000. A blood test can run 50 to 200 bucks. An xray - 500.</p>

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<p>Get the insurance; you’re lucky it’s just $1000 for the year; us “old folks” even if we are healthy- pay that monthly.</p>

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<p>S has always been healthy as a horse, never more than colds. Never been in a hospital since he was born. No broken bones. Last summer, he got appendicitis. They were able to operate laprascopically and he was home in 24 hours, but bills totaled over $30,000 (overnight hospital stay, surgeon, anesthesiologist, diagnostic cat scan, emergency room charges, emergency room doctor, etc.). </p>

<p>We are in a rural community where medical care is relatively less expensive that in some urban areas and he had just about the most uncomplicated appendectomy you can have. He had been in grad school last spring, and I forced him to pay the $125 for summer coverage. So far, his total of that $30,000+ bill has been around $5000. Still plenty for a recent grad and we have helped, but a LOT better than $30,000 worth of bills for that $125 premium. </p>

<p>As previous posters have said, a car accident, broken bone, food poisoning or some other relatively common unexpected illness/injury can mean tens of thousands in bills. Just ask around among other students and see how many have been hospitalized and for what in the last year or two.</p>

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<p>Have you ever seen the long, long list of reasons insurance companies deny claims? State farm once was ordered to pay out $8 million for damages because a couple had their car stolen, filed a claim, State Farm denied an obviously legitimate claim and instead accused them of insurance fraud, and then the couple called ******** and sued State Farm for defamation I believe.</p>

<p>Health insurance, after the Federal Reserve, has to be one of the biggest ponzi schemes on the planet. </p>

<p>I won’t go into nationalized healthcare, but the insurance racket is a big scam.</p>

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<p>Wow, great way to ignore my post. At least the OP read it…</p>

<p>I’d say that 1% is a fair, if not somewhat high, estimate for the probability of having a “bad” medical need in the course of one year.</p>

<p>If you’re 20 years old, healthy and never had any serious medical problems, if you don’t drink to excess regularly or smoke more than a couple of packs of cigarettes a week, if you don’t drive for more than 20 hours in any given week, if you don’t play intense sports on a daily basis, if all you do is hang out with friends, watch TV, and go to classes / study, you probably (in the statistical sense) are throwing money away for insurance just to be sure.</p>

<p>Now, there’s not necessarily anything wrong with that. But some people worry less than others. Is it risky to not have health insurance? Yes, and nobody said it wasn’t. But if it’s a risk you’re willing to take, then who are you to say that it’s not worth it?</p>

<p>If you have problems - asthma, bone problems, some glandular disorder, bad allergies, etc - then it’s probably stupid not to have it. But that’s not the kind of people the OP or I are talking about.</p>

<p>I’m guessing he’s a lot like me… maybe not in the best shape ever (probably in better shape than me, lol) but no major problems, very rarely even gets sick, and not very high-risk for breaking bones or anything. No family history of strange diseases hitting at the prime of your life, etc.</p>

<p>If I asked any of you whether or not you wanted giant meteorite insurance, would you start paying me $1000 a year?</p>

<p>But you’d be stupid not to have it! What if a meteorite hits? Then you’re boned.</p>

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<p>Why would meteorite insurance be worth it? If you get hit by a meteorite, you’re dead. And I’m sure the meteorite insurance policy would be written so that it doesn’t cover meteorite strikes. There’s a word for something like this-fraud.</p>

<p>It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a lawyer look over the insurance policy and ask them to point out anything fishy to you.</p>

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<p>Ironically, lots of what you say applies to health insurance too. Bad claims may <em>kill</em> you, and insurance companies will probably try to wiggle out of paying up. And if you have one bad claim, who’s to say they’ll even keep you on?</p>

<p>Insurance has always seemed like paying for protection to me… if you know what I mean.</p>

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<p>Probably? They’ll try every reason in the book, no matter how fuzzy, questionable or sketchy, to wiggle their way out of paying up, even on good claims. That’s the American business model-screw the customer and hope that they’re too lazy to bother them. Then use advertising to bad-mouth other companies that screw their customers over. </p>

<p>If I have insurance and my insurer tries to drag their feet on a clearly legitimate claim, I’m suing them. We had to deal with a car insurer that was dragging their feet for FOUR MONTHS about paying on a subrogation claim (the other person’s fault-hit my mom’s parked car). One letter to the CEO’s office, CC’ed to the California Insurance Commission (or whatever their name is, don’t remember) and the CA Attorney General’s office with clear threats of litigation if they don’t pay up, and they overnight a check.</p>

<p>If I were regulating insurance companies, any company caught holding up claims would be fined so far up the ass they may have to go into bankruptcy. Something along the lines of 10,000 times the amount of the claim.</p>

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<p>Ive had BCBS for years and have never had them deny my claims or even attempt to, nor has anybody in my family or anybody at my mothers employer. It is just a HMO also. So idk what you guys are talking about, maybe your insurance just sucks,.</p>

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<p>
[QUOTE=jjs88]

I have been thinking of doing a risk analysis as AuburnMathTutor suggested. I have a feeling that the expected values would weigh in favor of not getting insurance, but the question is how risk adverse are you?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I think you need to take an economics class. Insurance is insurance. It is not an investment. It is not a bet. Insurance has a negative expected value (overhead and profits for providing the insurance). If you purchase insurance for your whole life and never make a claim, consider yourself fortunate. Insurance is to protect you from catastrophic events (unforeseen, sudden, etc.).</p>

<p>Insurance also helps to keep you from being a burden on the rest of us. When you say “which would mean I’m screwed”, that’s not quite right. It means the rest of us will have to pay the losses on your bet. We will pay your medical bills because you are uninsured.</p>

<p>Not purchasing basic types of insurance when the cost is reasonable is irresponsible, and kids are great at being irresponsible because they do not really understand the risks. 2 questions: Question1, would you take the following bet: I will give you 25 cents, with a 1 in a million risk that I will kill you. What’s your answer? No? Why not? Question 2: Would you cross the street to save $0.25 on a can of pop? What’s your answer? You have a 1 in a million chance of being hit by a car when you cross the street. If you wouldn’t take the bet, then you should not cross the street to buy the can of pop. You can’t really grasp the “utility” of getting the kidney transplant until you have been sick, or know a close friend/relative who has. The value of that new kidney is infinite to you. Even if the odds are one in a gazillion against being in that situation, insurance is still worth the $1,000 on an Expected Utility basis (infinity times anything greater than 0 is still infinite).</p>

<p>Insurance is something you can afford (policy premium) in the event that you have to pay for something you can’t afford.</p>

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<p>Actually, your analysis sounds nice but is fundamentally flawed.</p>

<p>You take your life in your hands when you drive to work in the morning. Say you make $80k per year. If your life is worth +$infinity to you, and there’s a 1/1,000,000 chance you will die on your drive to work (the probability is nonzero, whatever it is!), then you’re an idiot for getting in your car.</p>

<p>The truth of the matter is that most people <em>will</em> actually cross the street for the “few cents” they could save on a can of pop. The reason? People do not always assume their life is worth +$infinity. To do that is self-destructive. Then nothing else matters but staying alive. Nobody lives like this… except people who become a burden to the state.</p>

<p>So $0.25 with a 1/1,000,000 chance you kill me? Well, let’s just say this… that’s the easiest $1.00 I ever made.</p>

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<p>8 years ago my 18 year old brother was driving home from work when a truck on the other side of the road crossed over the double yellow line and struck his car. He was air lifted to the hospital, where he stayed for two months before being transferred to a different hospital. For the two months that he was at the first hospital, his bills added up to a little less than 2 million dollars. Get the insurance.</p>

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<p>I think the major liability in this age group is not the risk of illness. It is the risk of poor judgment and delusions of being invincible. ( Present company excluded, of course.) In the end, we all pay, or almost all of us. I suppose there are many folks who get way with taking necessary risks, and have others pick up the tab.</p>

<p>OP; You asked…</p>

<p>“Anyone else share my line of thinking? I guess at a private school they can require anything of you to attend, but shouldn’t I have some kind of right to not have insurance if I choose? Especially, if it is a financial burden to me.” I hope you will consult with your parents. They are the ones who will probably lose everything if they are stuck with your medical bills.</p>

<p>Yeah. Uninused motorist share your line of thinking. And I suspect folks who have been hit by In uninsured motorist see things quite differently.</p>

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<p>I just recently had a really bad stomach flu when the semester just had just started. I had to spend over 2 nights at the hospital. My school health insurance expired long ago, so my government paid my bills instead. Sounds like a plan for me.</p>

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<p>Your analysis assumes that each $1 has equal value. If you didn’t work, you couldn’t feed yourself, and you would die anyway.</p>

<p>The answer to the dilemma is when people “think” they have some effect on the odds. I can’t control if you will shoot me, but I can keep myself from getting hit by a car.</p>