<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> Susan, Lot of good points. Yes, insurance is merely a transfer of risk from one party to the next. I understand that well. In the health industry, it seems that health insurance has become mainly cost sharing. If I were in your situation, I'd be self-insured too. My wish is that health insurance didn't exist. It has driven up health care costs for those of us who really want to pay our reasonable bills rather than getting something for nothing. Anyway, I'll refrain from a further rant....  :-)  Each person has to determine what level of risk they are willing to take - will be different for each of us. John Formsma Susan Kline wrote: <blockquote cite="mid5.0.0.25.2.20051223100039.02b3b210@mail.peak.org" type="cite">At 07:47 AM 12/23/2005 -0600, John wrote: <blockquote type="cite">Susan, we're doing what you suggest. Eating around 90% organic/natural foods, trying to get exercise, etc., saying "no" to prescription meds. It makes some sense to me to try to cover major medical needs, especially since I have two little ones for whom to provide. If it were just me, I probably wouldn't have insurance and would be saving up money every month to be self-insured (I'm 35 and in good health as far as I know). </blockquote> John, it's true that having children changes the situation tremendously. It's also true that, given certain medical situations, I'd be right there getting treatment -- dental abscess, if I were in an auto accident, if I thought I was having a stroke (blood thinners urgently needed within an hour ...), appendicitis, etc. I have a mental list of medical treatments which I think are good, and work, such as cataract surgery, hip replacement, appendix operations, bone-setting after fractures, etc. Hopefully, I won't need them, but if I do, I'm prepared to pay for them out of pocket. There are others I think are dubious and too expensive, like the treatments people bankrupt the system with, trying to postpone the inevitable in the last six weeks of life. And there are some I wouldn't touch with a pole, which I don't think ANYONE should be subjected to. I've thought about catastrophic health insurance, and I've decided it's over-advertised, and for me (single, no dependents, aged 59) not a good value. First, it doesn't insure your health -- all it does is pay your medical bills if your health catastrophically fails. And it only pays them up to a certain limit, once. At least, that is my impression. After that, you become uninsurable, or your premiums rise so high that you might as well be uninsured. So, what are you allowing yourself to be manipulated and impoverished and frightened in order to gain? A temporary feeling of security, which either is unneeded, or is needed, but later turns out to be at least partly hollow and over-rated? A lot of this money goes not to doctors but to the insurance infrastructure, the litigation costs, and the ass-covering over-testing trying (and failing) to protect the hospitals and doctors from malpractice suits. Law, insurance, and medicine -- a disastrous combination. I may live to regret my decision not to be taken to the cleaners to buy a service I never wanted in the first place -- surgery, lab tests, more lab tests, and dubious wildly overpriced medications -- but for now, I prefer to tough it out and tell them all to go peddle their papers. Susan _______________________________________________ pianotech list info: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives">https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives</a> </blockquote> </body> </html>