You still want ME to pay?
Nope. Never said that. However, I think that rules need to be relaxed between federal and state laws that will allow insurance companies to become more competative, and to allow them to allow more people into groups, which can spread the risk among more payers. Allow people to make "ala carte" coverage choices, chosing exactly what they do and don't want covered. For example, I'm single, and I think that I've gone to the Dr office twice in the last 5 years. I'd be more than happy to pay the cost of those visits out of pocket. But I can't. I have to pay for office visit coverage, just like a family of 5, with kids who go to the Dr office once a month, or even more. I'd like to be able to choose exactly what coverage I want, rather than just what my deductable is (though that does have a similar effect).
Those are just some of the things that could be done to help control the cost of insurance.
BTW, if you've got a medical emergency that may lead to your incapacity, maybe you could point to to a "lender" who will loan you many thousands of dollars with the chance that you'll never work again... And I once conducted an experiment: I called around to gastroenerologists, and asked them if I could just pay for their services with cash, because I didn't have insurance. Interestingly enough, NOT ONE would allow me to make an appointment. When they learned that I did have insurance, but wanted to pay cash, they were OK with that. The idea of an office visit without having to deal with the paperwork and getting nearly the same amount of money was attractive: But the possibility of having to provide expensive services without guarentee of payment wasn't something they were interested in providing: And I don't blame them.
The idea behind insurance is that for the most part, most people will not need medical services. The minority of people should only need minimal services, and very few will need major services. I'm not asking for anyone to pay for my medical services or insurance. However, medical insurance needs to be opened up to the market forces to make the cost more affordable. And maybe states should create an "assigned risk pool," for catastropic insurance, sort of like they do with auto insurance.
Mark