Is it better to have loved and lost, or to have never loved at all?

Contrary to the title, this post has nothing to do with love, unless you are a huge dork like I am. For the first time in my life, I'm facing an interesting health coverage issues. As a person who is studying and will be working for the US health care system, I am torn between being personally cautious, and being socially conscious. I'm forced between potentially having unnecessary testing done, or waiting until my coverage starts at my new job, and potentially paying more out of pocket for the testing.

Where, along the way, did we really learn how to make those kinds of decisions? The obvious ones we know: don't eat all the bagels at a meeting because no one else will get to enjoy the delicious bagels, if you're really sick you shouldn't go to the office so you don't infect other people, don't buy all the sale size 7's at Saks' shoe sale because others might want those pink Miu Miu peep toes. But how do you decide if you're adding to the problem, when really it's a drop in the bucket compared with $100,000 cancer treatments?

So I think, when it's all boiled down, my main question is: can I practice what I'll be preaching? Or is my own comfort, and being in a better place for my first day on the job, a bigger issue? This is the main reason I know I'm not anywhere near ready for kids... my own cleanliness and the ability to stay up and watch trashy TV is much too important to me right now.