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?
Insurance is a scam. But to be fair you can actually have both, with a high deductible HSA compatible insurance plan you get to pay for both insurance you never use as well as put other money aside into an HSA account that earns interest and gains for you. It’s a good idea to have an HSA and max it out if possible.
But beyond that I don’t disagree with most of your points. It’s insane having a system where you’re paying thousands of dollars, and worse if you actually do need health care you get the privilege of paying even more thousands of dollars extra until you meet your so called "out-of-pocket’ expenses before the insurance provider starts covering things on their own.
With my own health insurance I would actually need to pay out about $12000 (premiums + out-of-pocket) in a given year before the so-called health insurance actually starts covering expenses themselves… and this is assuming they don’t decide to deny any treatment and refuse payment. Like sure I guess that’s better than paying for a one-off surgery or major health emergency directly… But I doubt I could afford that every year if I was actually needing regular treatment for an ongoing health issue.