If I am going to keep riding my bike I need health insurance!

[OakLeaf]

Yeah, those are decisions I've made for myself based on my age and my tolerance for reduced quality of life. I certainly don't expect everyone to make the same decisions that I have. But if that's the kind of thing you want to have insurance for, better make sure you have insurance that covers it ... most don't. People recovering from cancer treatment and severe infections need rehab/PT/home care/psych services, too. That's why you're always reading in the paper about people having bake sales and spaghetti dinners and car washes and poker runs to help with this or that one's medical expenses. And if you can even find insurance that covers ongoing care, like a transplant survivor would need, add up the premiums and think about whether you could invest that money just as profitably as the insurance companies do. It takes more discipline to write that check to your own investment account instead of to an insurance company, but that might well be the main advantage.

Obviously a younger person will not only have a different balance of decisions, they'll have a much lower premium than I do (and I'm only 53, so I've got two HUGE premium hikes coming yet before I'm eligible for Medicare, if I live that long, and in addition to any premium hikes that get imposed across the age range). All I'm saying, is that it's not a no-brainer either way. Having insurance is NOT a guarantee that your expenses will be covered if something happens.