If you don't go to the doctor and don't need medicine, the "something" isn't valuable especially if it's more expensive than the "nothing". (I say that as someone with a preexisting condition who is happy to pay my premiums and get the medicine I need; I also grew up in a family where we didn't have insurance but somehow always had cigarettes and cable TV, so I know multiple perspectives)

I'm 30 years old and haven't been to a doctor in about 10 years outside of simple things that I paid out of my own pocket. Nothing that a year of healthcare would cover, and considerably lower than it'd cost.

I'd have paid in tens of thousands of dollars over the course of that time, and for what? What ifs?

When you're 60 years old you're going to want doctors and nurses who know what they're doing. That means someone needs to pay now to train them and their replacements.

So what you're saying is if I don't go to the doctor for 10 years, but pay $350/mo over the course of that 10 years for an insurance plan, the insurance company uses the money to fund college education for nurses and doctors?

Doubt it.

Do you know how insurance works?

Are you familiar with the concept of "insurance"? Most people would ascribe value to it.

Paying more for something that you don't need is a sunk cost.

Right. And if you get nothing, you pay less.