This is really sad. A very large amount of population would have a difficult time paying an emergency $400 bill.
If you have a 401k plan, the government is working on making it easy to get money out of the plan, up to certain amount, without penalties, if one has an emergency such as having a baby, an adoption and perhaps others.
Please read 401k changes
scan25-of-US-has-no-retirement-savings-1