"but even saving half the premiums in a money market account not only provides a good cushion for that, but if we don't use the money we actually get to keep it!"

Until they require a $50k life flight or $100k brain, heart, etc surgery.

The problem is that insurance was intended to cover the large, infrequent costs - house fires, totaled cars, etc. The deductibles are intended to influence people to pay out of pocket for the smaller expenses.

The problem with health insurance is that the deductibles, premiums, and cost of care are out of control. The laws mandate significant amounts of coverage for a plan. The costs can be as high as a house fire, but happen much more frequently within the population. You can't get a plan that just covers expenses over $10k-20k per year. You can get kind of close with the super high deductibles but it still has to cover some things before the limit. Even if you could get to that, you're still looking at high costs when you consider the odds of something like 1 out of 100 people might need a $100k procedure in a year (made up numbers).