November 3, 2025
Welcome to Premium Panic Season
Is Health Insurance Even Worth It Anymore?
Open Enrollment Meltdown: $43k “Silver” Plans and a Comments-Section Civil War
TLDR: Premiums keep climbing—some “Silver” plans hit $43k—prompting a thought experiment about skipping insurance. Comments split between HSA/ACA repeal fans, people warning about million‑dollar health shocks and childbirth costs, and a crew pitching subscription-style direct primary care, making open enrollment feel like financial roulette.
Open enrollment has people doomscrolling their wallets. The article points to premiums rising ~6% a year and a viral tweet showing a “Silver” plan topping $43,000—cue collective gasp. The author even runs a spicy thought experiment: skip insurance, invest your premiums and deductible, and pay cash. He stresses catastrophic stuff can still nuke you, but says the math explains why insurance “feels like a bad deal” for many. The community? Absolutely on fire.
On one side, HSAs-or-bust warriors want to roll back Obamacare and let people pile tax-free cash for healthcare. On the other, cautionary storytellers say: enjoy your “I’m healthy” era while it lasts—then a bad year hits and you meet your out-of-pocket max again and again. Several call out a blind spot: it’s not just sports injuries; pregnancy and childbirth often blow through caps, too. Meanwhile, disruptors hype direct primary care—“Netflix for your doctor”—as a cheaper, saner base layer, with cash discounts for tests. The memes are merciless: “healthcare roulette,” “gym bros vs. actuarial tables,” and “subscribe to a doc, cancel your anxiety.” It’s rage vs. risk vs. rethinking—and everyone’s doing the math with a side of panic.
Key Points
- •The article models whether health insurance is financially worthwhile amid rising costs, using a 26-year-old single employee over 35 years as a case study.
- •Assumptions include premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket maximums increasing 6% annually and investments returning 4% annually.
- •Benchmark data come from Commonwealth Fund (2023 premiums and deductibles) and KFF (initial out-of-pocket maximum of $5,456).
- •The model simplistically assumes an employer’s premium contribution could be redirected to the employee as cash, ignoring tax effects.
- •The analysis does not advocate going uninsured; it acknowledges catastrophic costs can be enormous and focuses on average-year financial comparisons.