Cash reserve in place of medical insurgence for family?

I live in America and I am thinking about self insuring. My wife had breast cancer 18 months ago and my family insurance will be about $24K each year. If I set up $250K into a short term investments would this be enough to self-insure? The medical providers charge uninsured patients about 2.5X what they charge insurance companies as near as I can tell.

Assuming that you are self-employed, I would purchase a high deductible small group plan, preferrably an HSA, (Health Savings Account,) qualified plan. As you know, an individual/family plan is not an option with this pre-existing condition, so group is the way to go. $2000 a month premium is high certainly, but hopefully a $5000 HSA plan will lower the premium considerably.
Self insurance is not a sound alternative in my opinion.

Near imposible to say. Take a look at what her bills were for that year & like you said, multiply that by 2.5 (which I think may be a bit low) then decide, if anything were to happen, could you handle that kind of payment. Just 1 major surgery for either of you, could cost nearly $100k or more--with insurance.

It's only enough to self insure if nothing really bad happens - like that breast cancer comes back.

Insurance is a financial tool. Even the very wealthy carry health insurance - because it's SMART. You're exchanging a moderate payment each year, against the possibility of a catastrophic loss.

The number one cause of bankruptcy filings in the US is uninsured medical costs. And $250K just doesn't go very far if you're talking open heart surgery, cancer treatment, etc.

Medical bills over one million dollars happen sometimes. $250000 is not enough to protect yourself.

please consult a specialist.