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Chronic vs. College (Guess Who's Winning?)

Are you an idiot for going to college?  

We've been told for decades: get a college degree and make a lot more money.

Then over the last decade or two, we started hearing about millions of people overwhelmed with college debt, whose post-college salary could not pay off their loans.  Living in their parents' basement.  Bankrupt.

But it's even worse:  To calculate your disposable income post-college, you should subtract out your college debt repayments & lost wages while attending college & your portion of employer-provided health insurance (premiums, co-pays, out-of-pocket costs).  Then look at your "real" salary.  

Ouch!  

Particularly if you or someone in your family is at-risk of a chronic condition, you could have been better off with a low-paying job and being on Medicaid (free government health coverage).

For example, if you attended a state university in Arizona, the median salary in 2018 was $51,197. But subtract college debt + foregone-wages + health-costs (if you or just 1 person in your family has a health condition), and per Kaiser Family Foundation, your disposable income becomes $34,306.  (Remember too: "median" means that many college grads would have even less than this left over...)

Compare this to $28,271 for AZ high school grads who are enrolled in AHCCCS (AZ Medicaid).

Do you really want to risk all that debt and years of lost wages--including the chance of never even finishing your degree but still having the debt & foregone wages--plus depend on getting (& keeping) a job with decent health insurance--for a shot at having several thousand dollars/year more (if that)?  

Educational attainment without health is an empty promise.  Let's create an ed-health win-win...with preventive K-12 education!


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