“There’s this wild disconnect between what people are experiencing and what economists are experiencing,” says Nikki Cimino, a recruiter in Denver.
“There’s this wild disconnect between what people are experiencing and what economists are experiencing,” says Nikki Cimino, a recruiter in Denver.
Most of my expense, other than taxes, are healthcare costs. I know of no way I can reduce how often my family needs healthcare, and I have thousands of dollars in healthcare debt still not paid. We rarely travel, rarely eat out, and rarely splurge. Maybe there is some way to squeeze our belts even tighter and make it work.
It is easier to just move to a country with more affordable healthcare. 12 years ago when I met Americans living and working in Japan I didn’t believe them when they said they were better off in Japan making less money than in the US because of how expensive healthcare is in the US. Now I regret not believing them. My family’s healthcare costs grew faster than our incomes.
I see. I’m sorry about the healthcare expenses. That makes more sense. The US healthcare system is truly predatory and awful in just about every way. Vote for people who want to change it.
The ACA should have had a single payer option. I also believe the US government should run public hospitals and have a national generic drug company.
I’m in the same boat, single income just under $200k, but my savings has stagnated the past three years due to medical bills (wife was hospitalized and is now disabled).
Debt is beginning to pile up and it seems like the only real option is to start cherry picking the more important medical expenses to keep up on and letting the others slide (like the $26k hospital bill).
At the current rate things are going, I’ll have no savings and no college fund for my kid along with a stack of unpaid medical bills and needing to downsize to a cheaper home in a worse neighborhood. At least our only car is paid off end of the year and should hold up as long as the last one (made it 12 years, 220k miles).
Living that American dream.