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?

  • BCsven@lemmy.ca
    16·
    1 day ago

    So being Canadian I have a different outlook. My province used to charge $1500 per year for health coverage so that everything was “free” at point of service. Then we changed political parties and they dropped it to $750 per year, years later to $0 per year. (The idea being if you are struggling then any monthly payment could would be a hardship).

    So now we pay nothing for healthcare and my income taxes went up $270 on first 50K, but at least I’m not paying $1500 or $750.

    So cheap health care and still save 5K for retirement