I REALLY miss the unrec today with these posts griping about the SCOTUS decision!

[frazzled]

85. I'm not trying to be condescending

We were young and very poor once, lived with very little, but always managed to get insurance. My kids are millennials who have struggled on less than ideal incomes while paying student loans. We all know how to be frugal in our family. Even though my husband now makes a good income (and I earn a piddling one from freelance work), we still have a minimal $27/mo. cable bill with no premium channels; have a 15-year-old television, turn down the heat in winter to conserve, and just bought a $18 part to fix our coffee maker rather than buying a new one. Just force of habit because we struggled for many years. Sure, we eat dinner out more than we did when we were younger or had kids, but not really a lot compared to many.

My son had to live on $23,000 a year while attending graduate school. Of that, he had to pay more than $1,000 for month in a subsidized apartment offered by the university--500 square feet shared with another person (who turned out to be crazy). Needless to say, he cooked his own meals mostly and once in a while got $3 falafel sandwiches. He has steadfastly refused to own a car, and does not have a television. He got the (subsidized) health insurance, which was admittedly a good deal. He did not, however, opt to purchase the dental insurance for $400. Several months later, he bit into a pumpkin seed in a bowl of soup and ended up with a bill for $1,800 for a crown (the insurance would have paid $1500 of it). It was a lesson worth learning: he got the dental insurance the next year. That could have been a medical problem: like getting hit by a taxi, or coming down with a major illness. Health insurance is not a luxury; with the cost of medical procedures, it's really a necessity.

I am not saying it is in any way easy to afford this insurance, even with the subsidies. But going forward, people need to treat it with the same seriousness as auto insurance, utilities, and rent. The future is different.