Does Health Insurance Make Sense? 
Yes . The purpose of health insurance is to protect yourself financially in the event of a catastrophic event by shifting the risk to a third party -LRB- the insurance company -RRB- . This way you 're only paying a small amount of money and not stuck with a bill for 10s of thousands of dollars , if not 100s of thousands of dollars . Would you rather pay a small amount of the bill or take on the entire thing yourself ? For example , if you have a health insurance plan and broke your leg and needed to have a $ 100,000 surgical operation , you may only be responsible for a few thousand dollars of it -LRB- e.g. your deductible or coinsurance -RRB- , as opposed to being responsible for paying the entire bill yourself . How many people could afford to write a check for that amount without liquidating all of their assets ? Many health plans will provide additional benefits as well , such as coverage for preventive care , routine doctor visits , prescription drugs , etc. . 