The other day at work Danger was choking on some beverage and he relates this story:

"I breathed in my lungs and ran over to the sink and spit out the choking-ness and was coughing and wheezing. My co-workers were concerned and asked if I was okay. I barely said 'aaagghhghgg okayaassdf...' and then one of them said something about calling an ambulance (not really seriously but they were a bit worried).

"I was still coughing and wheezing but I said 'No don't - I can't afford it!' and coughed some more.

"It was all pretty funny but afterwards I wondered how many people have some kind of serious medical problem and the first thing they think about is how much it's going to cost them and whether or not they can afford it.

"There have been enough really stupid minor medical problems that have cost me so much over the years, and since I'm a small business owner my insurance is so worthless it will only help me if I get cancer or develop Parkinson's disease or something."

Three years ago, when my wife was pregnant, we carried health insurance for her. Then when the baby was born, we switched the insurance to the baby. Even though her surgery incision from giving birth became infected briefly. For anything other than cancer or emergency medicine, we decided we didn't need to go to the doctor, I guess.

Now we have real insurance for all in the family. But we've become so inured to the idea of not going to the doctor that we still signed up for a Health Savings Account, which means we have really high deductibles and cheaper premiums. This automatically means we think about the cost first.

Danger is correct, there is a growing group of people who belong to the group of people who at first think it's kind of funny but later get scared that they think of medical costs first, and treatments second.

I wonder if we all have a sickness. I believe a lot of people have this condition of pre-treatment financial self evaluation.