"Health insurance is a way of protecting one's financial resources against the expense of a catastrophic illness.... People living paycheck to paycheck have trouble maintaining a reserve for unexpected medical expenses. So as an alternative to personal savings and higher wages, they appear to be willing to take less in take home pay in return for a modest amount of health insurance.... What is irrational is to use almost all of your paycheck to buy a health insurance plan with an unlimited benefit -- one that, say, is able to pay a $1 million medical bill. Why would you buy a million dollars' worth of coverage if you don't have a million dollars of assets to protect?"