[BarTopDancer]

I have a catastrophic policy that my parents are graciously paying for until I got a job/insurance kicked in.

It doesn't cover doctors visits, lab fees or anything that isn't remotely catastrophic. Which means preventative care isn't covered and OOP doctors visits + lab fees aren't cheap.

Sure if Betty's family can afford the $600 a month for COBRA then it seems that they could afford a cheaper catastrophic policy but whose to say they could afford the preventative care visits that would prevent a lot of the catastrophic issues?

Leo - put yourself in other people's shoes. Life circumstances now put you in a situation where neither your job nor your wife's job provides medical insurance. What are you going to do? Would you have laid out the tens of thousands of dollars for your daughters knee surgery?

Your life circumstances, that give you the perspective you have can change at any time. Sure, now you have a nice emergency fund but what would you do when that ran out? Start thinking outside your little world, because you never know when you may find yourself in a completely different one.