So to throw another wrench into things, as I didn't know about my cancer when this thread was fresh.
I've been generally healthy my adult life. Overweight, a smoker, drink a little much on occasion, but my bloodwork and vitals have always been good. Like surprise the doctors good. I went years without insurance because every job I ever had that offered it would fire me before they had to pay for it or was such a horrible place to work I would quit before I was eligible.
Finally got health insurance when I got married in 21 through the wife's work. Runs us $250 a month for a family of 4 for medical dental and vision.
My dental is a joke, covers $1500/year/person. I have bad teeth, thanks family history of terrible teeth, so dental work is multi year planning to keep it covered.
In January of this year I finally got a weird lump checked out in my leg. Never hurt, never impeded motion so I never thought it was a problem. Turns out it was Hodgkins lymphoma.
$4100 out of pocket deductible before insurance took over 100%. My bills to insurance for the tests to find out what it was were almost $50k, I paid $4100.
I have no idea what my every other Monday chemo treatments cost, but the blood cells booster pack I get after every treatment is $8k on their website without insurance. Deadskunk was billed $18k for his after he finished his leukemia treatment and he only needed one. I will have 12 of them if the chemo does it's job and I don't need follow up treatment. That's $100k just for ONE medication. Then there will be follow up testing. PET scans are billed to insurance at $15k each. Echocardiogram is billed $6500 to insurance, every time. Since hitting my out of pocket limit, I pay $40 to see my oncologist once a month and everything Else is covered.
These numbers add up quick.
My dad was a dialysis patient for 15 years. His treatments, which were 3 times a week, were $16k a treatment, plus another $5k for koumadin injections, plus testing fees. Plus the multiple surgeries to install and fix the fistulas and ports. Then there was the 3 months in a coma in ICU. Millions of dollars got billed through to insurance and Medicare over that time. I know because Medicare would send us the bills and randomly refuse to pay for treatments until they were reminded you can't get blood from a stone.
There's is no way in hell I would go without insurance after this, especially with so many children where each one is a roll of the dice on what may or may not happen health wise.
Just in the last 6 weeks, my 8 year old has been down and out for step throat twice and now Booking a tonsillectomy in July, my teenager and wife both have some mystery chest cold that won't go away or respond to medication, and that's been with us going crazy keeping the sick people isolated in their bedrooms because my immune system is effectively dead while I'm on chemo.
It's a personal gamble, but goddamn, the risks don't out weigh the potential savings in my opinion.