A coworker was asking me about the dragon boat experience last night. Which made me remember on the way home that one reason I continued with the same health insurance plan even after I lost the part-time faculty partial insurance payment stipend was just this. I could fall in the river and, if it's been raining, could be exposed to all kinds of nasty diseases. Or slip on the boat with a serious enough injury that I would need medical attention. Or slip down a trail on a hike; or on the Mt. Tabor stairs; or misstep on the treadmill at the gym.
Point being: Now that I'm more active, there are increased physical risks (though far less than if I'd gotten involved in downhill skiing or race car driving or hang gliding). So, as long as I can, I'm putting out about $375 a month for health insurance. I don't want to tempt fate too much by not having it and, because I'm not undernourished and unhealthily thin (which is what the current insurance scale would require; last time I weighed that amount my doctor said I was not healthy and needed to put some back on; you'd never guess that now!), so getting insurance again if I lose it will be a near impossibility. And I'm not 25. So I put out the money, have figured out how many hours I have to work to pay that (cough cough), and know that it's worth it. Unless I want to gamble on losing my house and everything else if a medical emergency strikes.
But at least I do have work and can afford it. I'd rather do something else with that money, but, I have it and I think it's a wise choice.