Eh, no, surely not. Pool the risk and only pay for your share of the risk. Somebody takes some risk in that, because statistics don’t always pan out, even at large, so the risk taker gets a return. Literally couldn’t be further from a “scam” - it’s one of the few amazing upsides to using money instead of bartering.
Ah right. Yeah US healthcare is utterly fucked. I’m very happy to live in a place with decent public healthcare, even if the local government is trying to screw it over.
In terms of denying coverage, that may be a U.S. healthcare thing. I’ve always found insurance companies reasonable to deal with, even when needs aren’t straightforward. For example, I’ve got a large family history of MS - getting illness cover was impossible via the standard route, but going through a broker many insurance companies were willing to insure me.
It seems a strange business that didn’t want customers.