Heath insurance in the US is a scam. Where I live it's definitely not a scam and is useful to protect against outlier events.
Discussion
Risk priced fiat is the problem.
Yeah you need to adjust the time horizon based on how much fiat garbage you think they're going to print over the policy period
Some niche insurance products like “Best Doctors” actually work well. In my country, voluntary health insurance is offered as a free employee benefit, and it’s decent. The problem is adoption. The more companies provide it, the more people demand it and the total costs rise. Eventually this eats into wage growth, which hurts most those who don’t use it often.
Insurance works because pooled contributions cover infrequent events with margin left over. But if claims rise past a certain threshold, the tradeoffs outweigh the benefits. Health and life insurance start to look like pensions - fine until they aren’t, because the system goes to shit once too many people rely on it.
That’s not the case with property, cargo, construction, or business interruption insurance. Those risks are rare, but when they strike, they can wipe out an entire factory or supply chain. For businesses, the value of insuring against catastrophic loss is obvious and lasting.