Thanks everyone for the advice. I didn't anticipate this turning into a debate about the merits of health insurance, though I fully understand its importance.

My main takeaways from this thread are to pay off my loans before any further investing, and to seriously consider health insurance (which will be a lot easier to do once my loans are paid off and the health insurance isn't eating up 25+% of my monthly income...)

Thanks again for the help, and will be back to post once these loans are paid off in a few years...!

I'll be lurking!