I’m not avoiding your “point,” at all. Mainly because your point is a non-sequitur.
You liken medical insurance to having to pay mob protection money. There just is no similarity.
You purchase medical insurance so you can cover medical costs and expenses that you might incur in the event of a medical illness or injury. You pay a certain sum, a premium, which is small compared to the overall cost of medical care you need in the event of illness or injury. That premium protects your financial assets if you have any, and also allows you to receive medical care that can cure you or save your life. You may or may not ever need that medical care, but you have coverage just in case you do.
Mob protection money is extortion. You either pay for “protection” or those from whom you need protection — i.e., the extortionist mobsters — will cause you harm.
And still no answer.
Are American citizens better off since the advent of medical insurance or not?