Long term care insurance is another issue, and requires very careful research and isn’t necessarily a good idea for everyone.

I hope you are working with vocational rehabilitation to try to get your life back, Kelly. Quadriplegia isn’t the end of your life.

I also have a serious problem with the cherry-picking by health insurance companies because they in turn destroy the insurance system by denying people who get or who MIGHT get sick any coverage.

However, if you don’t have health, life and disability insurance and you choose to expose yourself and your children to the financial risk, it is quite simply irresponsible.

I am seriously against people acting irresponsibly in any way. Having children you can’t afford, quitting jobs without making sure you have insurance coverage, riding bikes without insurance or helmets, etc. are NOT simply consequences that the individual bears. EVERYONE ends up paying through the nose for these individual, reckless decisions. And the ones who pay the biggest price are the family members who are victims to the decision.

Thanks for a great blog, btw.

Toni in Chicago

Also, apply for any assistance you even have a shot in hell of qualifying for. If you find yourself in the position I was in when I woke up quadriplegic, you can’t afford pride. Social Security Disability and Medicaid may be what you need to keep you off the streets, especially if you are left unable to work in the near future or for the duration.

In ten years I’ve never found a long term care or life insurance policy that would cover me–obviously I’m the very picture of “high risk.” It’s protection we have to learn to live without. I’ve learned to save everything I can and plan, plan, plan instead

Is it ever a good idea to scale back on my 401K contributions in order to pay off my credit cards faster? I’ve been contributing 5% of my salary and my company matches that. So with their match I’m contributing 10% of my salary. I’ve been doing this for close to 7 years now. With the market the way it is, I’ve been thinking about contributing less and using that money to dig out of my hole faster.

Thanks,

Ed

Also, to the person asking about kids and material goods: A very simple and effective way to make sure your teen does not become spoiled if you yourself have plenty of money is to simply not get your child everything they want. This doesn’t mean that you can’t get them anything. Just not everything. It is seriously as easy as that!

However, you’ll pay tax on the rollover from regular to Roth, so beware of that and make sure you have the cash to pay for it.

Thanks. That reasonably explains a firm’s approach to debt for the most part. That something that was amiss in my question was : competition and market dynamics.

However, I am not sure whether the following applies as much to individuals :

“To some extent, when credit is available, it behooves you to make use of it–(productive use, not buying consumption stuff)–because everybody around you will be doing so, and can gain an advantage over you if you refrain.”

Did you mean it to be applicable to individuals as well ?

I don’t think Nicole’s intent was to commit any kind of insurance fraud. I think you read that into what she said. You’ve made a couple of recent comments (for instance, that parents should not ever consider having one parent stay home if it would mean not having health, disability, etc. insurance unless they’re prepared to deal with a ventilator dependent quad from their own resources) that make me think you may have had to deal with some difficult health issues within your own family or friends.

While I sympathize if that’s the case, I have to disagree with the notion that a person with the infamous “pre-existing conditions” can’t or shouldn’t be fully covered by health care (and without committing a crime).

Fortunately I live in British Columbia (Canada) where a family of 3 or more pays $108/month for health coverage with *none* of this nonsense that you have in the US about excluded conditions, copays, paying for being in the hospital, etc.

If I’m sick I can go to a doctor, clinic or ER with no charge. I can go to a specialist, get a 2nd opinion, have an ultrasound, CT scan or MRI and nobody tells me I have to see this specific doctor or pay for necessary tests.

The idea that, for instance, an American who had once had gestational diabetes for a few weeks during pregnancy could be denied coverage for full blown diabetes that developed later in life is repugnant to me.

For a person without major financial resources, something like that could easily be a death sentence (albeit one that might play out over a number of years).

So, what do people who have something like this happen, or have a catastrophic car accident *do* if they don’t have health coverage or very deep pockets?