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

[thekarens]

There are other things to be considered than just accidents, though I do get where you are coming from. What happens if you get a life threatening illness or let's say you are in an accident and you somehow injure your kidneys and end up needing a transplant. For those types of reasons I couldn't imagine not having any 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.

[jobob]

I just don't get why people think that health insurance is optional.

Nor do I.

[kajero]

I don't know why the United States cannot have a decent health care system. Well, yes I do. Too many politicians.
Oakleaf,
Apparently we think alike. My health directive is very explicit and reiterates much of what you said. I have discussed this with my children until they are sick of it.
However, I will keep my insurance mainly to try to protect my life style as long as possible. Believe me, I don't have a luxurious life style.

[luvmyguys]

More companies do cover those things than you think. And the year dh had cancer, YES, I can say the payout alone from insurance for his care more than covered the amount in premiums we've paid in since we graduated from college. I'm irked at the nature of insurance companies, but one cancer diagnosis will make one appreciate even modest insurance.

The deciding factor for us was less "what was covered and what wasn't" and more along the lines of deciding which insurance company was going to fight every claim tooth and nail. Dh's company offers a few selections, and two of those selections offer what seems like similar coverage at drastically different rates, but when we did just a little research, we came to the conclusion that we'd be dealing with a whole lot more insurance drama with the cheaper company.

[mtbfan]

I ride alot, three times a week. I live in Cali and I do mountain biking. That is why I have 3 types of insurance policies. One is my health insurance plan with BlueCross Blue Shield, then I have an heli-lift policy from CalStar and a stand-alone policy for my bike from Velosurance Bicycle Insurance . Only with these 3 policies I feel safe, well, not safe but protected from anything that may happen to me or my bike. For BCBS I pay $400 a month , for CalStar I pay 40$/year and for Velosurance I pay $120/year. The most expensive here of course is the health insurance but this one you have to have no matter what, cyclist you are or not, you never know when you might need it. Just like a helmet, you dont need it until you need it.