Half of Americans could not handle a $400 surprise expense! (Fed's report on Economic well-being of US households)

[C40]

See page 17-18.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/econresda ... 201505.pdf

This was linked from an Article I saw.. I'm sure there are other interesting details.

[jacob]

So we're down to $400 now. A couple of years ago I think the standard was one month's salary.

[jennypenny]

The other glaring item I saw is that 25% of people (in all income levels) skipped dental work because they couldn't afford it. I've never understood why dental isn't a part of medical insurance.

[Chad]

@Jenny
Probably because it's one of those things you can slide by people. Especially, those people without kids.

Also, because most dental is preventive care, which isn't handled exceptionally well in normal healthcare.

[jacob]

Combination: Dental is more like car maintenance insurance (oxymoron/consumer exploitation alert), like regular motor oil changes with the occasional bigger problem. You don't really need to insure that (unless you can't raise $400 ) and it's hard to die from dental neglect albeit not impossible. Of course much regular medical care is similarly maintenance based (flu shots, annual checkups, ...) , but it's hard to delineate it from the deadly/critical stuff. Additionally, because most people are regularly exposed to dental issues, they actually know how to shop around unlike say an MRI for a once in a lifetime issue, so dental work is substantially more market based in its pricing whereas medical issues are priced by make-believe numbers/whatever they can get away with.

[enigmaT120]

The other glaring item I saw is that 25% of people (in all income levels) skipped dental work because they couldn't afford it. I've never understood why dental isn't a part of medical insurance.

I had dental coverage through Kaiser P. through my work. I only pay 1/3 of the total premium myself, but the dental portion of that coverage was about $1700 per year for my wife and I. I realized that I could pay for a lot of dental work for that much money and dropped the high option that included dental, and just found my own dentist closer to home. The next year I needed a crown, 700 bucks, but Kaiser would have only paid for half of that anyway. I saved a lot of money by dropping the coverage. I use a flexible spending account so pay for my out of pocket medical expenses with pre-tax money.

[cmonkey]

Nevermind a $400 expense, now they have to worry about immortality as well.

consumers will start going to advisors and saying "I've heard about the 'singularity' and I may have another 40 years when I thought I would have a lot of money and then transfer that wealth to my kids. But if I live another 40 to 50 years, how do i do that?"

...

But no advisor or software today has the solution for the question of immortality. "It's back to human skills," he said. "I'm not sure how robo-advisors do that, but maybe they get better and better."

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102730128

[Hankaroundtheworld]

Hahaha, that's funny, not sure if people want to worry any longer about 400 USD surprise expenses than they already do today. But if we can extend life anytime soon, I am sure we can optimize dental treatments as well with Robo-dentists, or perhaps your Home-Robo in the (near) future can do all these tasks (just a matter of uploading Dental program in your Home-Robo). It is going to be a bright future

[walker]

And we'll have Uber-fication as well as robo-fication, so if we can't afford $400 for a RoboDentist we can just use our smartphones to borrow someone else's. Now I'm looking forward to being a cranky, homebound immortal...

[workathome]

No wonder it's so hard to sell things costing more than $400 on Craigslist.

[arrrrgon]

No wonder it's so hard to sell things costing more than $400 on Craigslist.

Not if it's a "necessity" like a TV or new golf clubs!

[chenda]

Speaking of dentistry, insurance covering implants in case of trauma is very cheap and very worth it, imo. (Implants can costs £1000s)