"Money to spare" was under my control. If I had money for gas and cigarettes, which I never seemed to be without, then I had money for basic health insurance.

I don't know if the feeling of responsibility was a natural inclination or taught to me by my mom, but it was there.

And there were no circumstances per your number 3.

In the end, only one of your three was a required condition, IMHO.

good thing too from 19 on.

One I have been asking myself. The truth is in my early and mid twenties I was in the same position as you. I worked at a job that did not offer health insurance. I priced it and chose not to buy. The truth is that, although expensive, I probably could have afforded it. It would have cut into my budget. I will have to admit that for me it was a lack of condition #2, a natural inclination to be responsible. At the age of 22 I had a lot of growing up to do.

I wonder what I would do if I were of that age today. I honestly can't say that I wouldn't be one of those who opted to just pay a fine and spend my money on beer and beach weekends. Mind you I am not defending that position - just being honest.

a family background that included health insurance/health care availability. My family never had health insurance when I and my brothers were growing up - my parents were lucky, we didn't have any major accidents or illnesses. I spent most of my twenties and thirties without health insurance, it wasn't until I was in a situation - first university, then a job - that offered affordable insurance that I have been consistently covered.

I still am not really used to the idea of insurance that covers more than emergency use, and haven't used it as much as I should to stay healthy - I still find that I 'ration' my health care, much like I did when I was uninsured.

I was 28 years old in 1974. I was married with one child. My wife also had insurance through the company she worked for and I don't remember any major bills for her pregnancy or delivery.

I love the ACA.

that was included in my college tuition for several years. For a short while when I was out of school, I had insurance through an employer. During the times when I was out of school and either unemployed or working for a different employer, I had no health insurance. So out of those 12 years, I was probably uninsured for a total of about 4 or 5 years.

I actually asked one of my bosses then if I could just drop the insurance and get a raise instead. He explained that the health insurance was security for them; if they were going to train me and rely on my work, they weren't going to risk losing me to some stupid accident or illness.

We were both making $6 to $7 an hour when we started with it. Now, this was insurance that would pay almost everything over $5K, and it even paid a small percentage of a procedure that cost about $1,200. It didn't break the bank, and we didn't think it made sense to skip payments.