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I don't know where you live, Indiana maybe? But most people around here can't even get into a home until their early 30s. Building up a nest egg and equity takes much more time than that. I don't think most people want to wait until their late 30s to start a family.
Yes, in a perfect, perfect world.....
Having said that, I'm an advocate for owning up to your debt. I feel bad for the guy and he does appear to be doing what he can to pay the bill. I just don't happen to agree that this sort of thing should happen to people with medical bills unless you choose to forgo insurance.
With the rise in numbers of uninsured as well as those buying health insurance that doesn't cover much of anything, we will see an increase in these stories.
Maybe people shouldn't be procreating children they cannot afford to support. Hmmm...??? Contraceptives are available from over 14,000 Public Health Department Family Planning Clinics nationwide for free
Rising number of bankruptcies due to medical expenses.
Cost of health insurance was going up and up until it was unaffordable for many including a lot of small businesses.
Even people with health insurance would find the cost of medical care would overrun their caps if anything serious happened. That's if the fine print covered treatment for that condition at all.
The idea that doctors and hospitals post costs so a person could comparison shop is naive at best.
We had that free market/no government control system.
It wasn't all that great.
Soviet style propaganda at its best. And no I dont remember since we havent had a free market health care system since probably some time in the early 1800's. How old are you?
Do you purchase a television or cell phone or car or refrigerator without knowing the price beforehand?
If everyone waited until they have a 'reasonable nest egg' before having kids they'd be too old to have any. Young people never think they'll get sick. That's for old people don't you know.
Sometimes people have more than one emergency in close proximity with more than one family member that wipes out a "reasonable nest egg." Until it happens to you you're never going to understand that and you're never going to have any empathy.
No, it isn't. We had our children after having saved up $50,000 and having a 25% equity stake in our home. Never had a problem paying our bills, even the unexpected expenses.
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I don't know where you live, Indiana maybe? But most people around here can't even get into a home until their early 30s.
At the time, it was the (pricey - still is) DuPage County Chicago suburbs. We both worked our way through college, so no student loans, and we bought our home in our mid-20s.
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I don't think most people want to wait until their late 30s to start a family.
Why start a family so early if one unexpected expense is going to cause you to lose everything, such as the man in the OP? Does NO ONE consider cause and effect when making such important life decisions? And most people don't get married right out of high school anymore like they did in the 1950s.
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Having said that, I'm an advocate for owning up to your debt. I feel bad for the guy and he does appear to be doing what he can to pay the bill. I just don't happen to agree that this sort of thing should happen to people with medical bills unless you choose to forgo insurance.
I don't think anyone should die in an auto accident, either, but it still happens anyway. Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get. Preparation and having a contingency plan are KEY to fend off as much as you can. Otherwise, you get swallowed up by situations you've failed to prepare to manage.
If everyone waited until they have a 'reasonable nest egg' before having kids they'd be too old to have any. Young people never think they'll get sick. That's for old people don't you know.
Sometimes people have more than one emergency in close proximity with more than one family member that wipes out a "reasonable nest egg." Until it happens to you you're never going to understand that and you're never going to have any empathy.
No empathy? You have a hell of a lot of nerve! My youngest's best friend in high school and 2 other of her family members were murdered by the girl's sister's boyfriend. It was a knife attack, and the police called the crime scene a "house of horrors." Sometimes bad things happen. Everyone knows that. That's why it makes absolutely NO sense to make irresponsible major life decisions, like starting a family, when you KNOW you can't manage to pay for a medical or any other emergency.
A recent study showed the price for a 21-year-old buying a mid-range policy would average about $270 a month before cost assistance. With cost assistance, that 21-year-old could pay much less.
Over 80% of 21-year-olds in the US will be eligible for cost assistance, meaning they will be paying as little as 1/10th of that $270 cost per month for quality health insurance, and many may even get insured for free.
Maybe people shouldn't be procreating children they cannot afford to support. Hmmm...??? Contraceptives are available from over 14,000 Public Health Department Family Planning Clinics nationwide for free
Well, right-wingers are trying to kill that off, too. Also, focusing on the kids part of this is missing the point. You can easily make "all the right decisions" in life and STILL be crushed by an unexpected medical expense. Yes, "bad things happen," but the whole point of society is to try to help each other and minimize the effects of those "bad things."
It's just more of the same excuses from the right on this one. We're to pretend single-payer - or at least some meaningful shift away from "for profit" healthcare to something affordable - "can't work in America," even though it's basically worked in every other developed nation of comparability economic prosperity. Not unlike the gun control debate - gun laws also "can't work here," even though they've worked in most every other developed nation, many of which still have a respectable number of guns.
I'm really tired of the right-wing excuses that are in complete defiance of the facts.
Well, right-wingers are trying to kill that off, too.
Nope. You've been misinformed. 14,000+ Public Health Department Family Planning Clinics that dispense contraceptives wouldn't exist nationwide if that were true.
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Also, focusing on the kids part of this is missing the point. You can easily make "all the right decisions" in life and STILL be crushed by an unexpected medical expense. Yes, "bad things happen," but the whole point of society is to try to help each other and minimize the effects of those "bad things."
That's what private charities are for.
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It's just more of the same excuses from the right on this one. We're to pretend single-payer - or at least some meaningful shift away from "for profit" healthcare to something affordable - "can't work in America," even though it's basically worked in every other developed nation of comparability economic prosperity.
Read WHY it works in other developed countries and then say if you'd be willing to switch the US from a progressive tax system to a regressive tax system like those other developed countries have:
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All that's needed is a reasonable nest egg and enough equity in one's home on which one can borrow if necessary. 
"Health care" in America...
