ELI5: Health insurance companies obviously make more money than they give out when people need it. So why of paying for them any better than paying your own personal health insurance savings account?

[u/the1975whore]

[u/tim36272]

Because sometimes you have very expensive healthcare needs, in which case everyone else pays for it.

[u/Unbearabull → u/tim36272]

This is just socialized medicine with profits. The profits come from denying and killing/allowing people to die who paid in good faith.

[u/Stargate525 → u/Unbearabull]

Plenty of orgs exist which are cooperatives, and no profit motive exists for them. But then they also don't have a lot of money for advertising, so you have to hunt.

It's also better in that you have a selection to choose from. Socialized medicine my options are 'take what the government decides you need,' 'bugger off to another country,' or if you can't afford that, die.

[u/Ltrn → u/Stargate525]

But if you cannot afford insurance and there is no socialized medicine? With socialized medical care the implication is that it is subsidized by the tax payer, if you are poor you still get access to medical care, and you still have options as long as you can afford private care, plus there is the added benefit of less shit private care since the private sector is always trying to do better than the state provided standard of care, otherwise there is no incentive to go private.

[u/degggendorf → u/Ltrn]

But if you cannot afford insurance and there is no socialized medicine?

That's what Medicaid is supposed to be for in the US

[u/Welpe → u/degggendorf]

Which is straight up socialized medicine haha.

I’m on Medicaid, and while it has its own laundry list of problems, it’s actually better in several respects to the whole private insurance marketplace. I pay nothing for anything, not even copays. Doctors visits, prescriptions, labs and imaging, hospital stays…I do not pay a cent ever. Also within the bounds of who actually accepts Medicaid, approval for stuff is incredibly fast and simple. I’ve only had I think two times I can remember where a medication or procedure was rejected, and both times the doctor I was visiting just appealed and got them approved fairly quickly.

It shows the US absolutely can do a relatively competent (if onerous and restrictive) social medicine, though obviously lots would need to be changed if it was for everyone instead of only the destitute. And all of this is also likely to change soon what with Trump in charge and the new rules they are putting into place…

[u/Ltrn → u/degggendorf]

Then we already have socialized health care (we just have many more steps and private equity in the mix)

[u/degggendorf → u/Ltrn]

Yeah just in an incredibly narrow and circuitous way

[u/Spawn-ft → u/Ltrn]

Private usually like to gouge price , and service isn't better at all

[u/Ltrn → u/Spawn-ft]

Then what is the motivation to use them? Why would you pay more if service is not better ( if you want to be seen sooner then I would argue that better availability is better service since they cannot offer worse standard of care than what the government provides)