[losteverything]

Im talking about totally thinking differently, not the current situation.

About having a lot of money saved....after a prosthetic implant i added up stuff. $143,000 spent on insurance since 2005. Part employer part me. Up until the prosthetic less than $5k (if that) on health. $143k is almost 3 years pay. I would have rather had it paid to me. Then i would have spent my money for my healthcare

[danans]

> $143k is almost 3 years pay. I would have rather had it paid to me. Then i would have spent my money for my healthcare

What would you do in the unfortunate event that you required medical treatment that cost 10x your annual pay (a real possibility)?

Absent an insurance policy, who would you expect to pay for that? Or would you instead expect your employer to pay you (and everyone else) the maximum theoretical health care costs you might incur? That's not possible in any system.

The point of shared risk pools is to protect people against such extreme outlier costs, and you've been the beneficiary of other people keeping up their end of that contract.

[gremlinsinc]

What if instead... You still paid the money... But it was actually an investment fund like vanguard. If you get sick it pays, it also negotiates cheaper rates for prescription, procedures, copays. If you stay healthy you get most of it back plus interests minus broker fees as retirement when you enter Medicare.

[dragonwriter]

And if you get really sick, especially at a young age...you exhaust it and either go bankrupt or die from not getting needed care, or both, depending on exactly how providers treat people without ability to pay.