There's another smart reason to take out insurance: taxes.
Eg my health insurance allows me to spend 300 bucks per year on new glasses. Why don't they just cancel this and make the health insurance 300 bucks cheaper? Because my employer buys the insurance with pre-tax money, I presume.
Not everyone in the covered group wears glasses, so the cost to the insurance company is less than $300 * N. Offering that is a nice benefit to the people who do need glasses.
In the meantime, Zenni is sending me good-looking properly made glasses for as little as $30/pair shipped. (Single vision, polycarb, titanium memory alloy frames. Arrived 4 days after I ordered them last week.) So much of the $300 is really going to line the pockets of Luxottica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxottica
Eg my health insurance allows me to spend 300 bucks per year on new glasses. Why don't they just cancel this and make the health insurance 300 bucks cheaper? Because my employer buys the insurance with pre-tax money, I presume.