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Comment by repeekad | Hacker News Reader

On the contrary, if you don't expect to need a doctor you can get really cheap coverage, just with a really high deductible. I only pay $100/month for $1 million in coverage, but my deductible is $20k so I pay out of pocket for all health expenses, but am covered during a major emergency (over $1 million I have bigger problems to worry about than paying off medical debt..)

Normal health insurance like employer provided (or universal healthcare) is the healthy paying for the sick, which while altruistic is what's actually expensive.

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I'm a little confused if you are in the US. That does not seem to align with ACA insurance policy standards (the max is too high). Even the under 30 catastrophic plan.

For example, if you are in your 40s the cheapest (bronze level $10k deductible) plan is around $500-$900 a month. Are you maybe talking about a family plan (which allows for about $20k deductible)? But that would be significantly more than $100/month.

Sorry, do not mean to come off as combative, just trying to understand what I am misunderstanding.

Edit: to clarify, federal regulations do not allow an individual to have a plan with a $20k deductible that I am aware of.

That’s correct, and while I understand why regulations like that maybe should be exist, there are exemptions you can go through to make informed decisions about what is best for you and your particular situation.

I bootstrapped two companies in my 20s. While living off savings to get going, $20k in medical would have been the end of that venture. I'm glad it's working out for you. I don't have hard data, but I suspect being so healthy you don't need a doctor favors younger adults without dependents. And being able to afford up to $20k without losing your business implies a certain amount of wealth before getting started. That matches the profile of most tech founders I know -- certainly all of the ones that bootstrap. I only managed to make it work because for the first one I was on my parents' health insurance and for the second I had COBRA and a funded HSA.

If we want to encourage people to start new businesses, some form of universal healthcare would be a massive catalyst. Starting a business is never going to be risk-free, but there's a big difference between risking your retirement or even your house and risking the health of your child.

What you have is not considered health insurance so much as disaster insurance.

Similarly, what is considered health insurance is not really insurance but a convoluted way to pay for healthcare. I think there's a place for what you're calling disaster insurance but to me sounds truly like insurance for health-related issues (i.e. risk-pooling high cost low probability events). The conflation with what we've got now with that is one of the key reasons our health care system is so out of control, in my opinion.

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