[wintertime]

I would also add that people should be able to set their own deductable. In my state the highest deductable we can purchase is a $4,000. We could easily afford a deductable and a risk of $10,000 or $20,000. This would greatly reduce our monthly payments. We could have afforded this level of insurance for our employees and for ourselves. Yes, it is not total insurance of our employees but it would save them from losing their house and going bankrupt.

Yes, it would hurt financially to have to pay out $10,000 or $20,000 but it wouldn't leave us bankrupt and penniless.

Essentially, my husband and I are able to pay out of pocket for most illnesses ( a pneumonia, appendectomy, broken arm, gall bladder removal, hip replacement..etc.) What we **really** need insurance for is a very long stay in an ICU after a very unusually illness or horrific accident.

[Wiseghy]

In CA, hospital costs, alone, average $10k per day. Surgery is extra. My broken leg cost $26K, about $1000 per hour of hospitalization, which is also about the average. But the average is not even close to the max.

Bill for a recent “outpatient” Gallbladder surgery was $60K.
Not even a day in the hospital. No complications.

The medical system lacks price transparency. No one knows and few care what things cost. High deductibles do help, the higher, the better. Then people demand to see prices. Even then, stone faced billing clerks often say they don’t know, and insurers won’t tell you.