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If you were to attempt to function in the system without insurance, how would you go about it? Asking for myself.
When I was younger I went uninsured for a few years, and a few more on a catastrophic plan, and happily didn't have any issues. Now I'm older and married and my wife has a lot of worries about not being insured (I currently have full health care coverage from my job but I'm about to leave that career). Conceptually I think 'health insurance' is a misnomer the way it's typically used, that only high cap catastrophic plans actually constitute insurance, and frankly that I'd much prefer saving and investing my money instead of giving it to an insurance company.
However, anecdotally I've heard it's a real pain to get medical care if you show up and say you don't have insurance, and that you'll just pay for everything yourself. So, do you have any advice on how to do that effectively?
Health care sharing is a thing. It's worse than real insurance but you're just getting what you pay for there. The one that's solidarity something is better than the one that's samaritan's something. I am not the expert on these things or how they work but there's plenty of people who's main medical expenses are child-related who are very happy with them.
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Accepting the fixed costs of a quality insurance plan is obviously the best idea.
After that it depends on risk tolerance. A hospital is required to treat you if you show up even if you clearly won't pay you can then deal with medical debt. This is how homeless people function. Obviously not a great idea but you pay nothing (and also get no preventative care).
Speaking of which if you have any medical complexity you need a real plan.
That said if you are otherwise healthy you can try and get a catastrophic plan or other high deductible plan and realize the risks. Again recurring expenses cause problems.
I will draw your attention to direct primary care however which may be viable - you basically pay for a subscription to your PCP. Obviously this has recurring costs but it means you cut out insurance and therefore it can be much cheaper (because dealing with insurance is expensive for your doctor also) and if your PCP is good you won't need much in terms of specialists.
However you need to pay for other types of costs somehow (like hospital care).
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