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In the US, why doesn't a personal savings account make more sense than health insurance? (piefed.social)

submitted 2 days ago by CptHacke@piefed.social to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Hear me out on this, please.

Let's say that I spend $5k on health insurance in a year, but don't go to the doctor or have any medical issues in that year. Where does my money go? It disappears. I basically just gave away my money, and received nothing in return. However, if I took that $5k and simply put it into a personal savings account instead of giving it away to a health insurance provider - that money stays right there if and whenever I decide to use it. It even collects interest.

I realize that with a health insurance provider, you're (supposedly) getting discounted rates on medical services - but if your money is just disappearing into thin air if you don't happen to need those medical services in a given year, are you really saving money? It just seems like a really big scam to me - what am I missing?

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[–] kbobabob@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 11 hours ago

You don't want a personal savings, you want a health savings account (HSA). this is a pre-tax account that you own and can use to pay medical bills. This is usually in addition to regular insurance though.

It's usually used to pay out of pocket medical bills. For instance, you have a surgery and need to pay 5K out of pocket and insurance pays the rest. You can use the HSA to pay your portion so nothing needs to come from your personal savings.