[wayoutthere]

I do this!

I’ve found that my employer-provided health insurance is less than worthless for routine health care. I actually pay less by going to providers who don’t accept insurance — even though I maintain bare-minimum coverage and an HSA. I don’t think I used my health insurance at all this year — at least not enough to come close to meeting the deductible.

My primary care doctor uses this model — I pay $300/yr for basically unlimited access. I have a therapist who I pay $75 a session. I use GoodRX for prescriptions and get better prices than the post-deductible price on my insurance plan.

Basically, I pay less out of pocket by not using my insurance. I also get to choose my doctors, and they treat me as an actual patient rather than a number. Health insurance in the US is a scam.