this post was submitted on 23 May 2026
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Insurance is cheaper for anyone that has any kind of medical issue.
Especially if it requires regular, long term, medication.
Skipping insurance and going self pay is a risky gamble is cheaper and only works as long as you are in relatively good health, and have no accidents/emergencies... which can end at any moment with someone deciding to text and drive ends up sending you flying like a field goal punt 40 yards down the road.
You forgot to add that the reason this is so is because, in cahoots with the insurance companies, hospitals and medical centers have jacked their prices up several times over in order to justify the existence of insurance.
I think your order is wrong: hospitals/doctors increase the costs for insurance pay customers because insurance exists.
Insurance pays out around 20% of the time. As in, the health care providers just get nothing from them most of the time. This is especially bad for Medicare/Medicaid. They then raise the prices to cover the situations that get nothing.
Source: I work for a nonprofit healthcare company and they share their yearly income statements.
Yes, I thought that was what I said.
They way I read your post was that it was more of a collaborative effort to raise prices.
It's more of a relationship that is partially adversarial and partially cooperative.
Unlike single payer public option where the incentive is to both save money and maximize healthcare available, so it seeks a balance between keeping costs low enough to be affordable (at a societal level) while paying enough that doctors want to provide the services.
Basically it goes
Hospital: Holy fuck insurance pays more than peons can, increase the prices! 2 chewable asprins are now 200 dollars.
Insurance: Hey, fuck you, you cunt. We're not paying 200 dollars for 10 cents of chewable asprins. We'll pay 50.
Hospital: Hey, fuck you, you got the money, give us 125.
Insurance: Go fuck your whore mother, You're getting 100 and not a dollar more
Hospital: Fine, Deal.
Self Pay Patient: How am I supposed to afford to pay for the asprin when this is how it goes..
I know someone who refuses to buy insurance and insists on negotiating with the hospital. He is an attorney so maybe they are afraid he will sue them.
I mean, even if he's just a marginally successful attorney, he probably has the money for it.
Honestly, i like the strategy. Good for him 🤤
Maybe i should go to law school!