The past two years I've had an avalanche of health issues and have wracked up so many medical bills, on top of pretty hefty monthly insurance bill. I've just recently stopped seeing conventional doctors, and am seeing a holistic MD who doesn't take insurance. My insurance also doesn't cover any of the supplements he prescribes.

All that to say, I've decided for the new year to drastically scale back my insurance coverage to just catastrophic coverage, so I can direct more money to the uncovered stuff (as this doctor is actually helping more than the ten specialists I've seen, this is something I feel very confident about). Numerous people now have mentioned to me getting a health savings account. I don't really understand the benefits of a health spending account vs just saving money and spending it on my doctors bills.

Please explain the difference and advantages to me. My parents dropped me from their insurance when I was 15 so I've had to navigate this all on my own and haven't heard of a lot of these options.