Reply #14: i had no medical insurance in my 20s or most of my 30s

[pitohui]

showing up to get the parents to pay the bill was not an option

i just skipped care and did not inform them when i was seriously ill, asking them to pay and maybe put their home at risk was just not on


certainly i wouldn't bother them in this situation -- What would YOU do, if your 24 yr old showed up with a fever and a cough that he/she had had for a week or two?? You would give them money or your credit card so they could go to a doctor -- hell i had pneumonia and i never brought it up, they had money struggles too, i would have had to have terminal cancer or something and even then i doubt i would have said anything, what good would be done by breaking them financially too?

i don't think the issue is that twentysomethings are bums hitting up their parents but rather that all jobs, even low-paying jobs, should be required to provide decent health insurance

universal health care would be even better, because sometimes folks are self-employed or unemployed, and health insurance premiums are simply out of reach in those cases

on edit -- what proud2Blib describes is the situation as i understood it, parents can't chip in for adult children's bills or they are assuming the debt and then they might be liable for the entire amount