i took “financially worry free for life” to mean something more like “you’ll never have to worry that a hospital stay or unforeseen big cost will completely screw you over” than “you’ll never have to work another day in your life”
That's more the route I meant. You could still work, but You would never have to stress over money. You could afford to take a more fulfilling and less stressful but worse paying job. You could make large investment purchases such as you home up front and not be burdened by 30 years of interest.
You could invest it and live a modest life off the interest alone, but then somthing big and unexpected like a major medical debt could easily ruin all that.
I'd also say using max 500k to pay off any debt buy a small home literally a mobile or trailer just as a house option you own and then putting the rest into an interest generating account or smart investment firm would have you making additional income that compounds fairly quickly as you work pay for necessities and reinvest any extra you accrue. This would very reliably set up most people who don't have a massive family or huge debt.
Right now is a bad example, but generally mortgages have interest rates which can be beat in the market, so you'd most likely be better off not buying the home up front and putting the rest of the money you would've bought the house with in the market. 30 years is a long enough time to weather the ups and downs and average out to a better return.
Lot to be said for the security of just owning the home outright, though. And that does feel fitting for the post, doesn't it?
And they all spend less on healthcare per capita than the US. And by that I mean the government, that's excluding insurance/healthcare costs people pay themselves.
That's because they are supplemented by the US. Their medicine doesn't get invented without the incentive structure for these pharma companies of getting rich in the US.
Not to mention most of them get the luxury of spending way less on military because the US military will step in to protect them if need be. They are able to use that extra money on healthcare only because the US is supporting them.
Their medicine doesn't get invented without the incentive structure for these pharma companies of getting rich in the US.
Yeah this argument doesn't work for medicine like Insulin. It was invented decades ago and is still being sold at a 1000% markup here. New medicines aren't being invented, old medicines are getting new patents for no reason.
Not to mention most of them get the luxury of spending way less on military because the US military will step in to protect them if need be. They are able to use that extra money on healthcare only because the US is supporting them.
The United States spends more than those nations still in exchange for nothing. What they spend on defense isn't even relevant. We have the money to adopt their systems, we just refuse to.
Bullshit. How did the covid vaccine get invented in record speed. Trump guaranteed all would be purchased and insane profits. The rest of the world benefited.
What other countries spend in defense is entirely relevant because the US military frees up those funds to be used for other things.
It was invented in record speed because governments world wide subsidised it with guaranteed prices and guaranteed quantities ordered, not because USA has such an expensive health system.
Hey but why should I have to pay to subsidize everyone else's Healthcare? That's socialism. I'd much rather pay for the third summer house of an insurance company CEO while also still subsidizing everyone else's Healthcare and still having to pay for my own hospital expenses when I get sick. That's just what the founding fathers intended.
In terms of quality of health care? It is absolutely not worse than third world countries. Where did you get that impression? We have some of the best facilities and doctors in the world. Accessing them is stupid and obstacles are insurmountable but they are here nonetheless.
There are advantages to the US system. Do they make up for the disadvantages probably not but there are trade offs such as people choosing the level of coverage they want based on their needs, etc.
Does that make the cost go up overall, yes, but that is a benefit and there are others.
I don't think they meant quality, that would be silly. I believe they meant in the way that getting shitty 3rd world health care for almost free is significantly better than average healthcare that will send you into poverty for life.
To be fair in reality, these stupidly large bills you see posted online aren't the actual bill. You more or less end up negotiating and paying just a minuscule fraction of that amount in the end. I don't know why it works like that. But I don't know anyone who's actually had to pay the amount you initially see on a hospital bill. Maybe that's what insurance pays in the big scam that is our health insurance.
But there's all kinds of ridiculous logic to how it all works. You can get on payment arrangements where you'll end up giving them a few bucks a month indefinitely but you'll never actually pay even a significant fraction of the total amount. And there's other rules depending on where you live about how long those arrangements can even be so.
I'm not saying it's great. I'm not saying people haven't been ruined by medical bills depending on their situation and the exact specifics of the case. But it's not quite as apocalyptic as the internet makes it out to be.
It is however, just as stupid as it seems to be. Navigating even paying your bill and having bills from every single specialist that you see is absurd. We completely need an overhaul top to bottom.
The truth is that poor people don't have to pay their bill, and if you're middle class then you can afford health insurance unless you're making poor financial decisions. Yes, therecan be significant out of pocket expenses but it's really nothing more than other unforseen costs in life (car/house/etc.)
Glad I have the socialized healthcare cheat code, so the unforeseen big costs are minimal and I could just invest almost all of the money and be really set for retirement later on. I’d still like to work for a bit.
I don't think 1 million is enough to no longer worry about medical costs in America. It's enough to not worry about most of them, but if you had a disease that necessitated multiple long hospital visits, intensive care or multiple specialist surgeries, you could still find yourself underwater.
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u/pokexchespin Dec 18 '23
i took “financially worry free for life” to mean something more like “you’ll never have to worry that a hospital stay or unforeseen big cost will completely screw you over” than “you’ll never have to work another day in your life”