Actually, the time period I’m referring to is prior to 1967, when Medicare first was imposed (it passed Congress in 1965). My father was a district judge in Michigan and our family didn’t have medical insurance until 1970. We did just fine.

NTHEOC: For once, I agree with you. But we need some perspective. Private insurance became popular during World War II as a way around wartime price controls. Then the private insurance companies became powerful; the govt. started regulating insurance; Medicare, Medicaid, etc. got into the act, intertwined with Big Pharma, Big Insurance and Big Hospital. The far better way was to just directly pay your doctor or hospital. Costs were about 1/10 of what they are now, even for major surgery; the poor were taken care of by charity. It was called freedom.