Scenario: I pay X amount of dollars per month for car insurance. I have all 4 tires stolen from my vehicle overnight. I submit a claim with my insurance company to repair any damages. I now pay a **hefty** X amount of dollars for the event that has occurred.
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In medicine (and Im sure in general) one point of deductibles or co-pay is to try to get the person to not overuse. Simply put, if there is a full zero-cost to healthcare, people overuse it.
This is not just bad for the insurance company, who dont want to pay for unnecessary things, but also for the health system in general. Two scenarios to consider. First, a person has a common cold and shows up to a clinic. Now, there is no real reason to be seen by a doctor for a run of the mill common cold. Even though a clinic is appropriate for basic medicine, it still is a limited resource and that extra visit puts a strain on the clinic and possibly even pushes actually needed visits down the line. Second scenario, that person is a bit sicker, but instead of going to the clinic (which is cheaper) just goes to the emergency room. This is perhaps a bigger issue because now that person is using up hospital resources, money yes, but mainly time. Most people in an emergency room have no business being in an emergency room, and the above example person is stressing a system that is already stressed, and stressing a system that actually has a very important purpose into worse inefficiency, possibly hurting other patients.
Paying a share or whatnot of the service helps prevent the above. Either the person wont come to clinic for a common cold and save everytime time and resources; or the person wont go to the higher priced emergency room and opt for the cheaper clinic for a more appropriate level of care need.
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