We Thought Skipping Health Insurance Was Saving Money. We Couldn’t Have Been More Wrong.
If you had asked us a year ago whether health insurance was a priority, we probably would have smiled and said, “Maybe next year.”
There was always something else that seemed more important.
The rent had gone up. The car needed servicing. We were trying to save for a vacation we’d been planning for months. Paying for something we hoped we’d never use felt unnecessary.
It wasn’t that we didn’t understand what health insurance was.
We just believed it could wait.
Then one ordinary Sunday changed everything.
My cousin called early in the morning. His wife had been complaining about stomach pain since the previous night. They assumed it was something she had eaten.
By lunchtime, the pain had become unbearable.
They rushed to the hospital expecting the doctor to prescribe medicines and send them home.
Instead, they heard words they weren’t prepared for.
“She’ll need surgery.”
Everything happened so quickly.
>Consent forms.
>Blood tests.
>Calls to family members.
>Doctors explaining the procedure.
In moments like that, you don’t stop to think about money.
You just want the person you love to be okay.
But hospitals have their own timelines.
Before the surgery even began, the discussion shifted to deposits and estimated costs.
I remember seeing the look on my cousin’s face.
He wasn’t questioning the treatment.
He was wondering how he was going to arrange the money.
They eventually managed.
Some savings disappeared.
A few fixed deposits were broken.
Relatives offered financial help without being asked.
The surgery went well, and today she’s perfectly healthy.
Months later, though, my cousin said something that stayed with me.
“It wasn’t the surgery that scared me the most. It was realizing how close we were to exhausting everything we’d saved.”
That sentence made me think.
Most of us save for happy moments.
>A new home.
>A child’s education.
>A family vacation.
>Starting a business.
Very few people save expecting a medical emergency.
That’s exactly why health insurance matters.
It’s easy to believe emergencies happen to other people.
Until suddenly, they don’t.
Sometimes it’s an accident.
Sometimes it’s dengue during the rainy season.
Sometimes it’s a surgery nobody saw coming.
Life has a way of reminding us that certainty is an illusion.
One thing I’ve noticed is that people often judge health insurance by one question.
“How much is the premium?”
I think there’s another question that’s just as important.
“What would happen if I didn’t have it?”
The answer is different for every family.
For some, it means dipping into emergency savings.
For others, it means postponing long-term goals.
In some cases, it means borrowing money during one of the most stressful periods of their lives.
None of those choices are easy.
Health insurance doesn’t stop illnesses from happening.
It doesn’t prevent accidents.
What it does is give you one less problem to solve when you’re already dealing with enough.
Looking back, my cousin admitted something.
He had looked at health insurance as an expense.
After that experience, he saw it differently.
“It wasn’t another bill,” he told me.
“It was something I should have had before I needed it.”
I think many people feel the same way, but only after going through a difficult experience.
Maybe that’s human nature.
We often appreciate protection only after we’ve felt vulnerable.
If you’re healthy today, that’s wonderful.
Hopefully, you stay that way for many years.
But good health today doesn’t guarantee tomorrow will look the same.
That’s not meant to sound frightening.
It’s simply reality.
Preparing for uncertainty doesn’t make you pessimistic.
It makes you responsible.
Just like wearing a helmet doesn’t mean you expect to fall.
Or carrying an umbrella doesn’t mean you want it to rain.
You prepare because life doesn’t always ask for permission before changing your plans.
Health insurance works in much the same way.
You hope you’ll never need it.
In fact, the best outcome is paying your premium every year and never filing a claim.
But if life takes an unexpected turn, you’ll probably be grateful that one decision was already taken care of.
Sometimes the smartest financial choices don’t feel exciting when you make them.
They only reveal their value when everything else feels uncertain.
And perhaps that’s the real purpose of health insurance—not to eliminate life’s challenges, but to make sure a medical emergency doesn’t become a financial one as well.
