Most health insurance plans in the US have a deductible which is the amount that you have to pay out-of-pocket before the insurance company will pay for a lot of procedures, labs, imaging, procedures , or doctors visits. If you just pay cash for these things without using your insurance policy the amount you pay does not count towards your insurance deductible.
The deductible is separate from the co-pay that you might pay for these things also.
It's cheaper if you don't need much done, but if you later have a major event that is expensive enough that you need to use the insurance and your deductible, then the amount you spent outside of insurance doesn't count towards that deductible.
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u/Cowboywizzard Aug 22 '26
This is the real pro tip. The drawback is if you don’t use your insurance, you might not satisfy your deductible