Health Insurance

Needless to say, even if you are young and healthy, you pretty much need health insurance.  The days of being able to self fund your healthcare are long past, especially when any trip to the ER is likely to set you back possibly tens of thousands of dollars.  So while you need healthcare, the average American is pretty much screwed unless they are getting a full or heavily subsidized insurance plan paid for by their employer.

Open enrollment for Obamacare starts today.  There are several pros and cons to consider with Obamacare.  People pretty much scramble for ways to pay for heath insurance (it's pretty expensive for even basic coverage), and have come up with things like taking a weekend job just to get health insurance (ie: Starbucks), signing up for one college class to get student coverage, and moving to states that offer more subsidies for health insurance.  Even with health insurance, the part that isn't covered can be exorbitant which leads people to look into things like medical tourism for anything that isn't covered by their plan.

I'm not holding my breath for universal healthcare, although that seems like the most obvious answer to both cut healthcare costs and provide adequate healthcare for everyone.  The insurance companies would scream bloody murder, of course, but cutting out the middleman would probably do wonders for lowering costs and sending a message to drug companies and other providers that ridiculous price gouging won't be tolerated.