[amacneil]

It depends what you mean by safety net. Certainly most folks on HN have the safety net of being able to return to work fairly easily whenever they might choose to, including finding remote work.

If you mean "individual healthcare in the US is expensive", I absolutely agree. Assuming you are otherwise healthy, catastrophic health insurance might be worth looking into (I have never tried it myself). Another option would be to travel internationally, because travel insurance (or even the cost of private care) in most other countries is going to be much cheaper than a domestic health plan.