A TikToker claims his hospital bill was discounted $22,000 because he was uninsured. Can skipping out on insurance actually help you save?

But he ended up paying just $2,478. “Because when you don’t have insurance, these hospitals give you a discount,” he said on TikTok, showing the receipt. “They discounted $22,000 off of this bill” (2).

He says he decided not to renew his health insurance this year when he found out his premium would cost $800 to $900 per month, with a high deductible.

If he’d had insurance, he says the $24,000 charge would have been billed to his insurance and he’d have to pay the $5,000 deductible. “Then you tack on the $900 a month that I’d be paying for that insurance,” he says. “I’d be paying $20K this year for healthcare.”

So can skipping out on health insurance actually help you save?

The rising cost of healthcare premiums

The average annual premium for employer-sponsored health insurance in 2025 reached $26,993 for family coverage, up 6% from 2024, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey (3).

And, over the previous five years, “the average premium for family coverage has increased by 26%, compared with a 29% increase in workers’ wages and nearly 24% growth in inflation,” according to KFF Health News (4). That’s “about the same as a new Toyota Corolla hybrid.”

For an individual, the average annual premium for a health plan increased 5% to $9,325, according to KFF. Of covered individuals, more than one-third have a deductible of $2,000 or more (4).

One reason for this? “Drugmakers are developing more effective medications, including GLP-1 weight loss drugs and cancer treatments — but they’re also charging a lot for them,” according to an article published by NPR (5).

These costs tend to get passed down to policyholders. That’s why some employees are choosing to forgo health insurance altogether (though some may choose to opt out because they’re covered by a spouse’s plan or the ACA Marketplace).

If you’re uninsured, you may be able to take advantage of self-pay rates or cash rates. For example, when a patient pays the bill upfront without involving insurance, they may be able to save anywhere from 20% to 40% on the bill — in part, because the provider is able to avoid administrative hassles (6).

Should you skip out on insurance?

While skipping out on the costs associated with insurance can sound tempting, choosing to remain uninsured could come back to haunt you.

“If you like Russian roulette, then you’ll like to approach health care this way,” Michele Johnson, executive director of the Tennessee Justice Center, told NBC News. “If you’re healthy, you’re basically pushing all the chips out onto the table in hopes that you basically will mostly be healthy” (7).