I grew up in a cult where the expectation was that I’d get married and have multiple children. Luckily my own parents somehow managed to raise me right in spite of the indoctrination, and when I went to college I realized both that I could choose and that I didn’t want kids.

After my partner and I had been together for 15 years or so, we started seriously rethinking being child free. It was something we decided to do together. My kid is now about to turn 9. I adore him and love spending time with him. I still don’t much like other children and I never considered going through pregnancy again. My partner and I have talked about potentially fostering or adopting if we manage to retire early, but I’m content either way.

Outer Range for a newer cancellation, Dark Matter and Kings still sting.

I’ve worked for the non-profit insurance subsidiary of a charity hospital system, and part of the problem is that ANY of the competition is for profit. What that means is that the for-profit companies are effectively setting the baseline of coverage. Healthy people (or the HR department at the company) aren’t as concerned with richness of benefit as they are with the lowest premium. Sick people, though? They’ve got a list of doctors and drugs they want to make sure are covered. So if the non-profit benefit is too rich it attracts all the sick people and suddenly the operating costs of the non-profit skyrocket and they go out of business. It’s a weird model that can’t be AS good as the mission wants to be.

In my case the hospital system actually created a generic drug manufacturer themselves to undercut for-profit drug manufacturers. THAT was less daunting than trying to impact the insurance side any more than they already do.