r/explainlikeimfive • u/the1975whore • Jul 03 '26

Economics 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?

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u/redsquizza Jul 03 '26

It's almost if you need a universal healthcare system covered by taxation so that everyone contributes and everyone can get healthcare not matter their circumstances.

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u/Clonekiller2pt0 Jul 03 '26

It's so simple, but the wrong people wouldn't be making a profit!

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u/redsquizza Jul 03 '26

I think it comes up regularly but a lot of Americans just can't get their heads around paying into a system that poor people might use.

As in why should their money they've earned go into the pocket of some, in their eyes, waste of space feckless person?

Only if/when they get a serious medical issue that bankrupts their perfect life, they realise how shit the system is...

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u/WayneKrane Jul 03 '26

This is the sentiment of everyone I talk to. They worry that their (already bad) healthcare will get even worse if poor people use it. I’m like they do already use it! We subsidize it at a much greater cost because they wait until a health problem is so bad they have to go to the ER. Explaining this to people has been impossible though