I sympathize with your predicament, but the broader point is to save money before you have something like a stroke. I have a similar story to tell, but since the wife and I started saving from day 1, we already had a healthy cushion to land on when we got the news.
Bottom line, save for a rainy day. Because it's going to rain, be it a sudden event like a stroke or a gradual event like ours.
Of course, once tragedy strikes, it's too late to prepare. Again, you have my sympathy, but maybe we can get others to prepare before it's too late.
The whole point of the article is to say that "saving money is hard".
For 40% of Americans, saving money is impossible because the cost of everything continues to go up and low wages do not. Next, look at where the blame is pointed. A lot of people will blame people like Angela for not saving "enough" and try to say she is fully responsible for her own predicament. Not you or me, but there are a LOT of people out there who will blame victims of circumstance. Angela's predicament, even if she did save, is caused by drug companies charging $40,000 for a single drug, which that same drug in Canada costs $40 bucks and NONE of that money went to research. Link to that article
here.
We should prepare as best as we can, but there are limits to how much we can prepare. Insurance is supposed to help for situations like this, but look at the cost of both insurance and health care. You pay insurance but insurance has a bad habit of trying to not pay ANY bills at all. For Angela's situation, how much ability would her husband have to try to fight insurance companies in court after a stroke? The way insurance companies operate is predatory on those who are not able to defend themselves. If Angela's husband had not been married to Angela, he would be up shit creek without a paddle. Medical Care costs are also thru the roof. The cost of education is through the roof. The cost of living in general is through the roof.
Really what is happening is not that the costs are rising, but the value of money is decreasing. The costs increasing are symptomatic of the value of the dollar, and represents exactly why Fiat Currency is a clear and present danger to society. The way that many companies handle the situations is to twist problems to blame victims and get victims to blame themselves in a way that benefits the companies, not individuals. For Angela's situation, again, she would be shown to the world as being responsible for her own problems because "she didn't buy enough insurance", when really its the insurance companies and the cost of health care that profit from Angela's situation. They put her in Checkmate, and no matter what she did or does, her situation falters through no fault of her own. I have a few disagreements with Angela, but overall, I understand that her situation is terrible through no fault of her own. I know for a fact she is the type of person to prepare for herself as best as she can and to the absolute best of her ability. Strokes happen. Her situation should be limited to coping with the situation only from a medical care perspective, but is exacerbated by the financial, time, and stress costs of that medical care to the point where surviving medically could ruin her financially, which leads us right back to square one, the title of this thread.
So lets be clear here. Prepare. How does one "prepare"? Do they spend ALL their money on Health Insurance? Maybe the average person is blamed for "living beyond their means" when a single bedroom apartment now costs (here) $1500 a month and the average pay is $10 an hour? Lets blame the victim again for "not getting an education", an education that costs $50,000 and makes $30,000 a year. Can you say Teacher? I knew you could. Can you say that situation is quite normal? To be expected to be in financial dire straights and crushed by overwhelming debt to afford that education that qualifies a person only for low paying jobs? This is a new class of poverty known as "The Educated Poor". Now, take that average person who is $50,000 in debt, earning $30,000 a year, and trying to pay $1500 for a one bedroom apartment? 30k a year only provides 2500 a month BEFORE taxes, and if rent is $1500, that is well above the recommended 25% of income should be spent on housing. Now lets add in the rest of the bills. $1000 a month for health insurance. That number is also pretty average when insurance is not offered by employers. Ooops, that person is flat broke and can no longer afford to eat. Okay, go without health insurance. Oh damn, penalizes with a $695 penalty at the end of the tax year for being a "criminal" for "refusing to buy health insurance". Either way, that person is damned if they do and damned if they don't.
So, again, how do we prepare? And yes, a Teacher will probably be able to afford insurance to some degree, but what about a person trying desperately to start their own business? They cant get insurance from their employer because they ARE their own employer. If that person gets hurt, and dont have insurance, they are screwed. If its a long term illness or injury, they no longer have an income because they arent working. Hence the need for insurance. Insurance also does not always mean Corporate Insurance either, as you said, "saving", and saving is a form of Self Insurance. How is an average person supposed to SAVE when they are required by law to pay for Corporate Insurance, pay rent, pay for their education, pay for food, electricity, water, garbage, internet, cell phone, car, car insurance, car repairs, fuel, clothing, and the plethora of everyday things that everyone needs? These things that an average person has are not exactly a choice in being able to live. And all these costs are cumulative. When the costs of average things go up, now people cant afford to save a dime. In fact, far too many people are buying necessities with credit. So now the average person can throw a Credit Card / Loan that they can not pay off on top of their normal monthly bills, and even LESS money is available to save. To add insult to injury, this Educated Poor person is now paying MORE due to the interest on the loans for everyday living expenses than a person who pays cash.
So, how does one prepare? If we listen to the profiteers of education, they will tell you its responsible out irresponsible levels of debt to get a higher education in valuable trades such as underwater basket weaving. If you listen to an investor, they will tell you to buy a house as it counts as "real property" despite being dead smack in the middle of another housing bubble. They make money when they buy low and sell high, and want you to sell low and buy high. So of course they have an incentive to tell you to buy hoses when prices are at their worst, and getting worse. Listen to an insurance company and they would have you spend more on insurance per month than your entire income. And insurance is NOT an investment. Putting money into insurance is as much of a gamble as it is a gamble to not have insurance. Only difference is if you have insurance and a Seven, they will pay (minus your deductible and under your cap), but if you dont have insurance and roll an Eleven, then and only then can you afford to pay that bill yourself.
How does one prepare? Save? If so, how? Buy insurance? Buy an education that doesnt pay for itself? Rent instead of buy? Already above income level for 40% of people who can't save. Buy instead of rent? Thats smart during a housing bubble. Dont buy something you cant afford. Typically wise, but without a car, how do you get back and forth to work for people that dont have access to public transportation? To far too many, the only responsible course of action is to live in their parents basement and say FUCK the future and just give up. They understand that they have been financially checkmated and dont even try any more. Welcome to the world of the Educated Poor. *sarcasm* If only we had Socialism, where everyone can live beyond their means at the expense of everyone else, until it starts looking like Detroit, Michigan. The ONLY solution to the problems I have stated is to get Govt out of EVERYTHING and try like hell to make the Free Market properly correct the financial imbalances that are killing 40% of people who cant afford a $400 emergency expense.
I really hope you have a positive reply.
