I'm responsible for driving up health care premiums as well.
A couple years back, I hit my head on a concrete staircase. It was a small cut, but I needed treatment. A lapse in my insurance caused it not to be covered. It was Christmas vacation, and my employer paid no premium for the week. I had 45 days to pay the premium, but no one clued me into this fact until day 45, when I got the "we have refused coverage for the following reasons" letter. The bill for 30 minutes of treatment, a tetanus shot, some bandages, and the use of a rotating head stapler was $1500. I paid the bill for the doctor, but not the hospital.
Again, last year, I called my insurer this time to make sure I was covered for an ingrown toenail surgery, to which they replied yes. But they refused that and I was faced legal action or another $450, and this was not from a hospital - it was from family doctor who has the luxury of refusing patients.
My opinion is more that the health care is driven up not only by people receiving free services, but insurers refusing care, refusing payment, paying less than the services cost, haggling with doctors, and creating enough red tape that full time people are forced to come on staff to deal specifically with it.
Am I the only one who has been burned by technicalities? I doubt it. Screw the health care industry. If anyone deserves Michael Moore's fat ass jumping on their back, it's them.
Plus, some care is just flat-out expensive. I forget the exact number, but it's like 80% of healthcare money is spent on the care of a patient in the last six months of their life.