In the US, why doesn't a personal savings account make more sense than health insurance?

5 months ago by DiceTrauma to c/asklemmy

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?

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Balisada 22 points 5 months ago

I have Acute Myloid Leukemia.

In the State of Oregon, to treat that with a side trip through "lets get a bone marrow transplant land" it costs $2 million dollars.

I had a doctor state that they don't know what causes Leukemia, but it's not genetic, so there is nothing I could have done to prevent it and my family didn't give it to me.

Are you going to save up $2 million dollars in case you get diagnosed with something that does not have any symptoms? Because I didn't have any. One month I was fine, and the next I couldn't get to from my car to my desk at work without stopping somewhere along the way to rest.

To a certain degree, I see your point about paying for something that you are not really using. It sucks. But if you need it, it is really nice that you already have it.

There is a reason why some people literally go bankrupt with medical bills. Even with insurance, it can still get pretty costly.

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