[AnthonyMouse]

> Roughly a third of the citizens of the US would have to go into debt to secure $3K on the spot, they don't just have that laying around in the bank.

That doesn't change the nature of the problem.

With catastrophic events, one person in 250 will incur a million dollar expense in a given year, so everyone pays four thousand dollars a year for insurance and that person gets covered.

With dentistry, one person in five will incur a $3000 expense in a given year, so insurance would have to be $600/year. It's completely useless. If you couldn't afford the loan payment then you couldn't afford the insurance.

Insurance only works for things rare enough that most people in the pool will never incur the expense. If the event is common then it isn't insurance, it's just a prepayment plan.

Insurance never saves money, it only pools risk.

[mikeash]

I really doubt that multi-thousand-dollar dental events are as common as once every five years.

Insurance doesn't have to be for things where most people will never incur the expense. The average time between car accidents in the US, for example, is a bit over a decade, yet car insurance is very much a thing (and not just the legally mandated liability insurance, either).

[AnthonyMouse]

> I really doubt that multi-thousand-dollar dental events are as common as once every five years.

I don't have the actual numbers, but even if they were once in ten or twenty years, nothing really changes.

> Insurance doesn't have to be for things where most people will never incur the expense. The average time between car accidents in the US, for example, is a bit over a decade, yet car insurance is very much a thing (and not just the legally mandated liability insurance, either).

That isn't the average time between major car accidents. Most accidents are little fender benders that often don't even reach the deductible. What comprehensive insurance is really for is when some drunk totals your car while there is still a five figure car note on it -- and having that insurance is required by the lender. Or for liability if you maim someone and owe a million dollars. But neither of those ever happen to most people.

[mikeash]

Typical deductibles are $500-1000. It's nearly impossible to cause more than zero but less than $500 in damage to a modern car. Those little fender benders generally have price tags similar to what you'd pay for oral surgery.

[AnthonyMouse]

Sure, but the little fender benders aren't what the insurance is for.

You can save a bit of money on car insurance by having a $5000 deductible, because the average claim amount is <$3500 but you'll save more than the difference in insurance premiums over the years with the higher deductible.

[mikeash]

Given that most people don't take a $5,000 deductible, your notion of what insurance is for seems to be at odds with both insurance buyers and insurance sellers.

[AnthonyMouse]

The insurance sellers know what they're doing. The lower your deductible is the higher the premiums they can charge and higher premiums means more vig.

[com2kid]

> I really doubt that multi-thousand-dollar dental events are as common as once every five years.

I chipped a tooth on an olive pit.

$700 of dental work later, another $300 to get my nightguard remade (my bite changed a bit).

Another couple hundred to get that work fixed (the original filling had some issues), and a single olive pit cost me over 1k.

Dental bills add up fast.

[mikeash]

I'm not casting doubt on the potential costs, merely their frequency.