HN Reader

For my kids, health insurance premium would have been almost $2k per month. In a typical year we spend about $1,200 total on medical stuff just paying out of pocket. Also keep in mind that premiums are not all you pay - there's also deductible and co-pays on top of that!

It's not hard to math that up and see how insane doing the health insurance would be. Yes there's the catastrophic risk of a bad accident or ER visit or something, and that's worth some cost, but even saving half the premiums in a money market account not only provides a good cushion for that, but if we don't use the money we actually get to keep it!

The US government should track how many Americans don't have health insurance, instead of caring so much about GDP or the stock market. It's a KPI that would clearly show how poorly the economy is actually functioning.

Everyone is born and at some point will die. The costs associated with this vary hugely but the certainty of those two end points are inescapable. Almost every other developed country in the world recognises that and shares both the risks and the costs recognising that health is a golden crown worn by (and invisible to) those who have it. As someone with a spinal injury who would be most likely bankrupt and unemployed in the US I just don't understand why you don't get a proper, profit-free healthcare system. You spend the most on it in the world and don't get the greatest outcomes!

The Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has covered health insurance for children in middle-income families since 1997: https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2017/08/03/what-every-policy-make.... CHIP eligibility ranges from 175% of the federal poverty line in Wyoming to 405%. So how are their children who don't have coverage?

My partner doesn't even have health insurance.

My deductible is $8300, but at least it's 100% coverage once I hit that.

I don't understand why calls to "Protect the children!" don't include health insurance.

I know a real case where a child was in the intensive care unit and had their health insurance dropped because their parent missed a few days to be with them. The health insurance situation in the US is terrifying and heartbreaking.

And it's likely to get worse now that insurance prices skyrocketed.

Why is this flagged?

Someone exhausted the concern for children on other topics like identifying people on the web (so children don't watch porn), scanning the content of people's devices and communications (so children are safe from predators), etc.

They reached the bottom of the barrel just when it came to making sure children can get treatment when sick.

If only there was a party on the ballot that supported universal healthcare. (I know there are third-parties that do, but they are pretty effectively excluded from the process.)

Given the age population bomb, we should reduce elderly socialized benefits and offer them to children instead. We can’t afford both.

Medicare should cover prenatal, neonatal and pediatric care for all American children. Frame it as a pro-birther initiative.

And sure, give parents a total opt out when it comes to vaccination. Just because they're dumbfucks doesn't mean their kid need run a fever into brain-cooking temperatures out of fear of an ER bill.

Amusingly there is another conversation on HN were Americans pat themselves on the back

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46287251

In my country healthcare for under 18 is free. Just putting it out there.