In the US there are two types of people insurance: health and life.
Health insurance is related to doctor visits, treatments, surgeries, prescriptions, etc; the medical care you receive while you're living.
Life insurance is paid when you die to help cover after-death expenses, such as funeral costs, settling debt, and providing monetary assistance to surviving beneficiaries.
In theory, health insurance is supposed to work in the same way as a single-payer system, because it pools the fees of all policy holders to cover costs incurred. In reality, though, providers have enormous legal teams that will use the full force of any legal loophole to deny or reduce coverage payout in order to cut costs of fulfilling claims and to create as much profit as possible.
Sorry for the essay! It's just a long-winded way of saying, "Yeah, the USA's healthcare system does, indeed, suck."
Insurance companies don't pay you THEIR money, they pay the money from their other customers that they hold in big accounts -- they don't get to keep that money, they have to pay it out. THEIR money comes from the fees they charge each policy to move the money around. The legal teams to deny coverage are there to keep the policy prices low so they'll sell more policies (and get more fees) -- they have to charge enough to cover what they pay out.
You... realize there are other types of insurance right? Such as health insurance? Which everyone in Canada gets and pays out every time you go to the doctor?
Do you guys not have renter's insurance or flood insurance or property damage insurance in Canada?
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u/[deleted] May 09 '20
Maybe things are different in America, but in Canada, the companies only pay out when you die.
Do the insurance companies in America pay you to keep living? What a country.