Health care was a lot less expensive before insurance companies got involved. Gubmint involvement in anything is disaster.
The fundamental problem is that health insurance is paid for with pretax dollars, while medical care is paid for with after-tax dollars. This gives us an incentive to overinsure, which gives us an incentive to overuse the insurance we already paid for, which makes insurance more expensive since overuse is an expectation. Also, since the consumer and the payer are separated, there is no incentive to price shop for most medical treatments.
If I could buy any insurance I wanted, without that perverse incentive, I'd buy major medical coverage only. I'd be covered for cancer, hospitalization, maternity care, and other big medical issues, just like I'm covered for a car accident or a fire in my home. I would not be covered for routine checkups or birth control pills any more than I am covered for gasoline, oil changes, or maid service (which I don't have, but if Obamacare covered our homeowners' insurance, FedGov would probably mandate maid service as part of all plans).
You're right, just as Reagan was right. The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
The tipping point was when the insurance companies succeeded in getting the patient decoupled from the compensation process.