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?
The problem is that insurance companies negotiate lower rates than what you would get if you pay out of pocket; this coupled with the tact that jobs that provide healthcare don’t offer it as a choice, means that for the vast majority of people its a black box that is difficult to escape from, and if you do then you get screwed on price.
I feel like what they actually do is negotiate higher rates for the uninsured
You most certainly can opt out of an employer’s healthcare plan. I don’t know how common it is, but a plausible scenario would be if someone has a spouse with a better plan.