[kaitai]

My friend in graduate school (making $18k a year) had a baby who had some complications; the final bill was $1.5 million dollars. She was an immigrant from the Caribbean; her family there was reasonably paid by national standards there, but... $1.5 million is a lot to cover. And remember, the spouse can't cover you unless you're registered on their insurance.

A few weeks in the NICU and a couple surgeries and there you are, and there is no 'lifestyle change' that really can prevent that sort of thing.

[reader_mode]

Don't get me wrong - the situation sounds terrible and I'm sure the US health insurance system is pretty bad for a lot of people (at least it sounds like your friend got the treatment and can go through bankruptcy to clear off the debt) - but from OPs perspective, being covered by insurance on a good income - being in constant fear of medical bankruptcy sounds bizarre to me.

[geofft]

It is bizarre! We live in a country with bizarre healthcare structures! No one is denying that it's bizarre! We're just saying it's true. You Europeans cannot imagine what it's like here thanks to being surrounded by competent social support structurs your whole life, and it's beyond frustrating that you think you know better than we do how awful it is in our country and how we could "just" do something to make it better. If we could, we would.

I feel like if there's a risk of needing to go through bankruptcy in order to have a child, I would be justified in being terrified of it. Childbirth is in fact a life-threatening event, but it's also one a lot of people go through successfully, and you want to end up on the other side of it with enough money to raise the resulting child.