I think just sharing my story that the insurance people were extremely helpful, advocated for me, and went out of their way to fix my billing and paperwork problems.... I think that will help people. And honestly the insurance company was glad I called. I didn't expect that and no one else does either.

The affordability of insurance really depends on the employer and industry you're in. My SO changed jobs and got like a 10% raise, it didn't seem worth the enormous commute, but since they pick up 95% of health insurance costs (instead of 50%), there was a tremendous improvement above and beyond our expectations. And weirdly when you interview for jobs, they don't advertise what the benefits packages entail until after you've already agreed to the job based on the salary.

Thanks for having such a fun post.