Yikes! I'm glad you're okay now! I certainly agree that insurance is a good idea, but there are people who have good reasons not to have it. Some people just don't have the money. Especially these days, with rates so high. Some people can't afford both rent and insurance. Who are we to judge their choices?

I went through a couple of really rought illnesses with no insurance for years. I didn't even have insurance until this month! I finally got it since I needed dental work which I'm going in for tomorrow! I haven't seen a Dr. as much as I've needed with my other health stuffs and not at all for dental until recently. Now that I do have insurance though, I'll go if I HAVE to. Not if it isn't necessary though. I'm pretty darn relieved to be covered with dental now because since September, I've shelled out A LOT of wasted $. $50 just to be seen by a maxillofacial surgeon in November who did nothing at all except tell me to come back when I have $500 just to pull TWO TEETH! So that $50 was wasted. Thankfully, I have insurance now and my local dentist was super helpful and cut me a HUGE deal before I had insurance or I'd be in a mess right now!

I'm anemic and a couple of years ago was SEVERELY anemic. Eat lots of greens and anything with iron. Green beans are your BFF right now! They've helped me a lot. I eat things like that often to help with anemia and it makes a huge difference.

I feel ya on the Adderall! Almost EVERY ADD patient I know resorted to buying it off the street the past few years.

I agree that health care is a basic human right, hospitals do not have to treat everyone who walks through the door. They only have to treat life threatening emergencies and women in labor. The whole, "Just go to the ER, they have to treat you" idea is false (having worked in hospitals, I have seen people turned away for minor aliments, drug seeking, chronic diseases and no insurance)

One of the problems with the "just go to the ER" is that ER are not equipped to, nor will they treat the most common things; Chronic Illnesses. Most health care dollars in the USA are spent on treating Chronic Illnesses like Diabetes, Heart Disease, Cancers, Headaches etc. NO Emergency room will cover your month's supply of insulin, (although they have to treat you if you come in in Sugar Shock or Insulin shock) You HAVE TO go to a regular doctor or clinic for treatment of Chronic Diseases, and in our society, this is what most people end up with. Yes, good diet and exercise is good for you, but there is NO guarantee that you won't develop a Chronic Disease and finding health care insurance after you are diagnosed with one is nearly impossible.

When I was 22, I didn't think I'd end up with 1)pregnancy problems (I assumed as most women do, that my pregnancies would go perfectly. As it turned out, if we had not had health insurance we would have lost our house paying for my FIRST high risk pregnancy, not to mention the two miscarriages and the next two high risk pregnancies which went to term) 2)Two Chronic Pain conditions. NO ER will properly treat either Fibromyalgia nor properly treat Chronic Migraine. There is NOTHING an ER can do for a Fibro flare up, and they will most likely turn you away at the door as a drug seeker, the same with migraine. That or they'll give you a shot of Triptans (which only work well for 40% of migraine patients) and send you on your way. Both these illnesses need to be treated by a doctor who can see you every 3 to 4 months and is willing to prescribe every month.

No ER has to take you because your cholesterol is high. It isn't an emergent condition, it has to be treated by a regular practitioner, same with high blood pressure, diabetes, most minor or non-life threatening psychiatric disorders and a thousand other things.

ERs are not doctor's offices. They are to be used for emergency or emergent health conditions and not ongoing chronic or even minor, but possibly dangerous situations like pneumonia, bronchitis, influenza, etc. Yet, these illnesses often do need to be treated.... in a doctors' office, along usually with pharmacological treatment, which insurance helps with as well.

I know it's hard to get insurance, one of my own children doesn't have it at the moment, and I worry EVERY DAY that something will happen, anything from a pregnancy to a to an other bout with severe sinusitis, where she will need medical care, to heaven knows what and there will no way she can pay for it.

But, no one can predict the future. One's 20s are usually fairly healthy, but anything can happen at any time. My middle daughter's freind has a brain tumor. You CANNOT get a brain tumor treated in an emergency room. He was given an MRI when he was brought in in Status Epilipticus, (a seizure that won't stop) but since his diagnosis (which was not even done in the ER) he has needed a Neurologist, a Pharmacologist, an Oncologist, hospital stays and ongoing surgeries and cancer treatment and symptom treatment. Who would think a 23 year old boy would suddenly, with no warning and no family history, develop a brain tumor? No one. But these things happen and if he didn't have insurance, I have no doubt that he'd be dead by now.

It's like playing Russian Roulette with your life. Like them or hate them, there will come a time when you will need a physician, and it's best to be prepared, even if you don't use the services until you really need them.

I worry about people without insurance, I've seen a friend who thought "We pay more for our insurance and our co-pays than we use services." and let her insurance lapse... then develop an unexpected health condition that has forced her to re-mortgage her house to pay for (she applied for Disability and was rejected) at least she had a house to mortgage, most people don't. That was four years ago, her mortgage payments are double what they were before the health condition, and she is still in debt from the treatment she needed to stay alive.

Please be careful and rethink not caring for yourselves.

Congrats! I'm glad.