Pondering an Uncertain Financial Future

I don't have health insurance.  I have been visiting a local urgent care clinic that takes patients without insurance.  Their fees for visits and routine medical tests cost me about $600 a year.  As the Obamacare deadline approaches I am struggling to work out a budget where I can afford to pay for health insurance.  I make too much money to qualify for government assistance so I will have to pay full price for the insurance.


That works out to about $600 a month.  And that is $600 a month in addition to what I have to pay the doctor and for prescriptions.  Obamacare is really proving to be unfair to middle income families that are just barely getting by.  How am I supposed to pay for this insurance that won't provide me any benefit, or pay the tax penalties that set in next year?

There may be a loophole in the law.  If I can afford to pay for health insurance for four months out of the year I won't have to pay a tax penalty.  So I have until about mid-August to figure out a way to make this work without having to pay over $7000 for insurance I cannot use.

One option might be to borrow from my 401(k) plan.  I was looking at a blog article about 401(k) plans that explains how to plan for future loans against your investments that won't upset your asset allocations.  I wasn't planning to borrow any money this year but I might have to do so for a medical emergency.  So what if I can arrange to pay for four months' insurance by borrowing about $2500 from my 401(k) plan?

I don't want to break the law.  But I can contribute $220 a month to my 401(k) much more easily than I can pay out $600 plus co-pays for doctor's visits, tests, and prescriptions.  Obamacare may be a great idea for poor people but it's threatening to put me into financial jeopardy.  I don't know what else to do except borrow from the 401(k) plan.

Maybe I can save enough money without dipping into the 401(k) plan that I'll still be able to get four months' insurance in August.  $2500 might fit onto a credit card, too.  So if I wait until August to buy insurance for September, October, Novermber, and December I have three options:

• Put $325 into a savings account every month and do not touch it.
• Borrow from my 401(k) plan.
• Pay for 4 months' insurance on a credit card.

I don't like any of these options.  I wish I could afford health insurance but President Obama's plan is just causing me more grief than it is helping.  I would rather change to a real social medicine plan like they have in Canada than do this half-assed health care program that Obama's political cronies pushed through Congress.