I had no insurance a couple of years ago and needed a minor outpatient surgery. The surgeon worked with me on the price and charged nothing for the follow up of

I had no insurance a couple of years ago and needed a minor outpatient surgery. The surgeon worked with me on the price and charged nothing for the follow up office visits. The cost of the OR comprised about 90% of what I had to pay as the hospital only gave something like a 10% rate reduction. Taking everything in to consideration, it cost me about the same out of pocket for that to have insurance versus not having insurance, including the cost of premiums for a couple of years. Afterwards, I decided I'd be better off with insurance in case something bad happened. I've only known one person who had a huge medical problem without insurance, and, after spending some months filling out forms for the hospital and various programs for uninsured people, he wound up paying only the bills from the doctors. All but one of them offered a decent reduction in their fees, and I think a couple dropped them all together. All said and done, he was relieved of around $250,000 of debt. From my experience, I think it's a good idea to have some type of health insurance just in case you hit a worst case scenario.