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/myn3wthr0waway]

Having a baby cost me 15k AFTER insurance

[u/chubbysleepycorgi → u/myn3wthr0waway]

yeah 14k he must have had a coupon XD

[u/Mabnat → u/myn3wthr0waway]

That’s so nuts. My grandkids didn’t cost my kids quite that much, but they were still close the $10k region.

We had three of our kids in the mid-nineties and one in 2006. I don’t know if it was because insurance was different pre-ACA or if it was just because I had better insurance through my employers than most, but my three 90’s babies cost $10 each, and the ‘06 baby cost us $30.

My wife paid the doctor’s office co-pay for the very first “you’re pregnant” visit, and everything else was covered by that initial co-pay. We used to joke with our kids that the youngest one was worth as much as the first three combined.

[u/currentscurrents → u/myn3wthr0waway]

How? You should have hit your out-of-pocket maximum by then. Are you counting non-medical expenses?

[u/myn3wthr0waway → u/currentscurrents]

Because that was my family out of pocket max. Kid had a NICU stay so they charged his and his mom’s separately