Health Insurance was a scam to begin with. It was invented to let a defense contractor get around wage and price control during the Second World War. It is not even insurance but rather "pre-paid medical care." Think about it like your car, "Insurance" pays for unexpected emergencies not regular maintenance. And now "health insurance" has become all about government control of health with the full connivance of the Doctors Guild (American Medical Association). They need the money to pay for health care for illegals which is why if you are young and in good health in California they are not allowed to sell you true "insurance" for emergency treatment.
I discovered all this when I went into business for myself in 2002. My wife has a chronic disease and no company would sell me insurance at any price. But if she had not had it, the closest price would have been $2000 per month. Let's see now, over six years that would have cost me $144,000. So I self-insured. The brainwashing on this topic is amazing. All the time people, highly educated people, gape at my wife and I when we tell them we do not have insurance.
Here's what I did on my own. I put $300,00 into a mutual fund. Post-tax dollars, No HSA, no government involvement. We shop for our medical care. I have negotiated treatments that were priced at $3500 to $800. I buy my wife's medicine in Mexico or from Canada. And don't try to sell me drug company propaganda, they are the exact same drugs they sell at Costco or Rite-Aid. So at last reckoning (when I did my taxes this year) instead of being $144,000 poorer. I am well over $125,000 better off after 5 years.
Dance little puppets, dance! 
I agree with you, Atomic_Dog.
My 85 year old mother was paying over $500/month for simple drugs and she does not have any real serious problems. Her Medicare Part D coverage was a rip-off, $30 copay for a $4 drug x 6 plus another $30 a month for the insurance premium.
I moved her to a $10 per month plan to cover catastrophic needs, knowing around the first $5000 is my cost and then
I replaced everything she needed at a cost of $200/year.
I am a very knowledgeable consumer though.
The current medical system destroys lives, both physically and financially. Universal insurance is not the answer though. The free market would solve the problems- get rid of insurance and most regulations.
Here's what I did on my own. I put $300,00 into a mutual fund. Post-tax dollars, No HSA, no government involvement. We shop for our medical care. I have negotiated treatments that were priced at $3500 to $800. I buy my wife's medicine in Mexico or from Canada. Congratulations, wish more people could do what you do, but the govt will make that as difficult as possible. The "insurance" system that you avoided pays for things like "Children's Hospital Launches Sex Change For Kids Program" and many other insanities along with the general diminution of self reliance.