Hear me out on this, please.

Let’s say that I spend $5k on health insurance in a year, but don’t go to the doctor or have any medical issues in that year. Where does my money go? It disappears. I basically just gave away my money, and received nothing in return. However, if I took that $5k and simply put it into a personal savings account instead of giving it away to a health insurance provider - that money stays right there if and whenever I decide to use it. It even collects interest.

I realize that with a health insurance provider, you’re (supposedly) getting discounted rates on medical services - but if your money is just disappearing into thin air if you don’t happen to need those medical services in a given year, are you really saving money? It just seems like a really big scam to me - what am I missing?

  • searabbit@piefed.socialEnglish
    3·
    12 days ago

    Here’s an honest answer from someone with a chronic illness. In the US, we don’t have real health insurance, so it’s more like you’re paying into a racket for some discounts and peace of mind in case you have a sudden acute condition. If you’re lucky enough to be able to work, you will (hopefully) have an option between the cartels insurance providers. If you’re a betting man, you should pick the lowest premium plan with an HSA, which is essentially what you’re describing, plus you don’t get taxed on the money.

    But people will say, what if you get cancer the first year? You’re screwed anyway, because it’s not like the insurance just goes “oh I’m so sorry you got cancer, don’t you worry, we’ll cover all the costs.” No, of course not. They’ll fight you every step of the way, so at that point you are just better off going to another country and paying for treatment out of pocket.

    But wait, other countries don’t have the same new or experimental treatment options as we do. Well, insurance often doesn’t cover those anyway, so if you are pretty desperate and you truly need those, you either fight for coverage, and I hope you haven’t lost too much of your support system from the isolation of poor health because the stress of doing it alone may kill you regardless, or you pay out of pocket until you go broke.

    There is also sometimes the option of medicaid or going on disability. You may go on medicaid anyway because good luck keeping a job and managing doctors appointments (oh my specialist can’t see me for another 6 months? Yeah put me on the wait list for cancellations), medications, and fighting the aforementioned insurance denials. Medicaid at least is actual state sponsored insurance, but remember Cs get degrees and As get high pay. As don’t typically accept medicaid pay rates unless you live near a big research hospital and can get their attention. Regarding disability, you shouldn’t really consider it unless you’re hitting rock bottom because it takes years to get on it only to have your savings capped to an insulting level that keeps you perpetually impoverished.

    So you’re not really missing anything because it is one big racket.