I suppose so, but one point here (that I'm sure many delude themselves above) is that there is no safety.  Working for a startup and e.g. paying for minimal catastrophic coverage is not necessarily more dangerous than working for the established companies who have laid off millions (???) of workers in the US this recession (many many if not "millions"; heck, 600K+ workers dropped out of the US job market in December 2009 alone).<p>And ... hmmm, if you're in a country with nationalized health care and resultant higher price levels, aren't your expenses and therefore ramen profitability just that much higher?  I.e. you pay one way or another ... and if you're young, you're subsidizing the older (and in the US, the elderly in Medicare as well).