People in the US say this all the time, “You absolutely need health insurance”.
This sentiment has been around for a long time, and has caused many to take lower paying jobs, or stay at jobs they don’t like just to get the “benefits”.
When people are talking about benefits, they usually don’t really mean a 401K, they mean health insurance.
The “You absolutely need health insurance” sentiment really means, “You need to protect yourself in case something happens so you don’t go bankrupt”.
If you have an emergency, and you don’t have health insurance, hospital systems are still obligated to treat you with the standards of care.
The insurance part really has just to do with the finances.
Health insurance should just be relegated to the financial aspect of things, but they bleed over into actual care through their use of what they decide to pay for or not.
Doctor wants you to take that specific medication? Too bad, insurance says no. MRI for your knee pain? Too bad, insurance says no.
If you have an emergency, and you don't have health insurance, hospital systems are still obligated to treat you with the standards of care. The insurance part really has just to do with the finances. Click To Tweet
The best way to go about all of this is to treat health insurance like any other insurance, and only use it for catastrophic purposes.
This is especially true if you have a high deductible.
For everything else you will pay less money and get better care if you pay cash.
This removes the health insurance companies from meddling in your care.
There are other alternatives to health insurance for catastrophic health.
Many who are healthy use health shares, which are built for what is described above and are less costly.
