[Prudence]

Maybe I live in a fantasy world. I resist going to the doctor with all my might. I have to be bleeding out my eyeballs before I'll go in. Well, maybe not that severe. But I'm busy. I have a life. And I don't intend to spend it in the waiting room. If I absolutely can't treat it with OTC or home remedies (say -- I've got a severe chest cold which is combining with my asthma to make it really hard to breathe even when I'm not moving) then a call to the nurse hotline and sending my husband down to pick up the prednisone works for me.

But I do have one big fear: Cancer. Everyone on my dad's side of the family gets it. Everyone. And they're all different. No convenient histories of breast cancer or colon cancer to screen for. Nope. Blood cancers, bone cancers, lymphomas, we've got 'em all. Heck, my brother had a grapefruit-sized tumor removed from his hip last year and he's only in his mid-20s. Fortunately that was benign, but damn. It's already hit my generation. Frankly I'm terrified that when it hits me it will destroy my family. I'm terrified that I'll have no coverage, or that the deductibles/premiums will be so high that we'll lose our home and our theoretical future children will be shipped off to live with relatives, or that cancer care and/or symptom management has become routine and is no longer covered in catastrophic coverage. I'm terrified that genetics will be used against the insured to deny care for predicted maladies. I'm the primary wage-earner in my family. What happens when I get cancer and can't work? What if it's 20 years from now and all we have are HSAs and that's fine for young workers who grew up with them and put into them for years and have years to go before major expenses, but I've only had access to one for a few years and have little in the HSA and no other safety net?

Some days I swear the only solution is to run for President. And then I remember that I only got 2.5 hours of sleep last night and it's probably just the heffalumps and woozles talking.