Health Insurance??

[farmaholic]

Insurance companies aren't non profit enterprises. It will cost more in the long run to buy insurance, than to simply pay the costs.

I would think this pretty much nails it. Someone is paying. Not quite this bad, but I was going to compare it to a ponzi scheme. Do these plans invest your premiums to pay for your long term benefits or is it like some large under funded pension plan and they're always borrowing from the future.

Are new participants of a mandatory or voluntary plan allowed to use it after one premium instalment or do they have to contribute for a period of time before they're allowed to use it? What would stop someone from abusing it.

They must also be relying on some people in the plan not using the value of their contributions......would anyone not use their plan benefits in this day and age?

[farmaholic]

These plans probably keep the actuarials busy..... costs, age demographics, participation levels.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

I would think this pretty much nails it. Someone is paying. Not quite this bad, but I was going to compare it to a ponzi scheme. Do these plans invest your premiums to pay for your long term benefits or is it like some large under funded pension plan and they're always borrowing from the future.

Are new participants of a mandatory or voluntary plan allowed to use it after one premium instalment or do they have to contribute for a period of time before they're allowed to use it? What would stop someone from abusing it.

They must also be relying on some people in the plan not using the value of their contributions......would anyone not use their plan benefits in this day and age?

They do invest your money, and at one time I did hear that they actually pay out more than they collect in premiums due to their investment income. However low risk investments lately are paying virtually zero, so not sure how that is turning out. Of course, we would expect the same if we put money away for a rainy day( instead of insurance), if that rainy day doesn't happen for decades, it should have grown, even just in an interest bearing account. Health insurance doesn't have such long time frames between claims, so likely there is no time for investment growth.

[woodland]

Farmaholic that’s all I can use for flossing since my teeth are so tight that the fingers don’t quite cut it. Also need the toughest floss so it doesn’t shred it too. My FIL never took care of his chompers when he was younger and was very thankful to have awesome coverage through work which he maxed out every year.

[woodland]

Thanks for all the different ideas. Going to talk to the accountant (my mother) and crunch some numbers. Generally I despise insurance except crop insurance which saved our bacon last year.😉