"perhaps it's more like taking out an insurance policy, and most of the best entrepreneurs don't like insurance or safety nets. That's why they are entrepreneurs!"
Does she actually know any entrepreneurs? Despite all of the ideological fights on this site, the most consistent piece of advice I've run across here is: Make sure you have health insurance. Get high deductible policy with low premiums if you're poor, but get some freaking insurance.
I don't think you understand just how poor poor can be.
I haven't had health insurance for almost 10 years now. I do not regret this at all, nor do I see any point to paying any money at all for a high-deductible policy in which the insurance will only become useful in the most extreme -- and unlikely -- of cases.
Health insurance companies put a lot of effort into coming up with ways to not cover your bills, and for that privilege, you are subjected to seeing only the professionals that the insurance companies have "blessed", no small fraction of which aren't taking new patients.
I would never do business with any company that treated me that way, and health insurance is no different.
Does she actually know any entrepreneurs? Despite all of the ideological fights on this site, the most consistent piece of advice I've run across here is: Make sure you have health insurance. Get high deductible policy with low premiums if you're poor, but get some freaking insurance.