Change My Mind: The Math Ain’t Mathing

Please help me turn my mindset around on insurance. I completely understand that it is necessary to have in order to avoid becoming bankrupt by hospital bills. Well…actually wait…no I don’t completely understand. Let me explain.

I am a healthy individual and see my doctor twice a year. I count my blessings that I don’t have any chronic conditions, I don’t take medications, and I’m a homebody so accidents are rare. As far as the most basic insurance that I qualify for through the ACA it would be $267 per month for premiums with an $18,000 deductible ($18,000 out of pocket as well). Nothing would kick in until I meet that deductible.

So in the end wouldn’t I just be paying double for nothing? I’d have to pay $267 per month plus whatever my doctor’s fees are (usually about $200-$300 per visit). If I see my doctor just twice a year that would cost $3,804 with insurance. If I went without insurance it would be just $600.

I know it’s risky to forego insurance as anything can happen (illness, accidents, etc.) and hospital bills can rack up quickly. According to a quick google search, average emergency room visits without insurance cost $2,600 and that still doesn’t even touch the yearly deductible I would have. Even if I had a costly procedure at $25,000, I would still have to pay the $18,000 deductible right? At that point I would have to pay $21,804 with monthly premiums and the deductible and I would only save $3,196. Is that even worth it? I thought insurance was supposed to prevent financial ruin. It almost seems smarter to just take that money and put it in a savings account instead so that if anything were to happen then at least I have some money to go towards costs (at least my savings account won’t deny coverage for procedures lol).

TLDR; I suck at math, but premiums and deductibles make it seem like I’ll be paying more for less care…