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This! Health insurance is the reason why medical costs in the US are so ridiculous. Health insurance, and IMO all insurance, is a scam. And since the "customers" (people who NEED care) can't see the price of service beforehand, there is no way for them to choose the most cost efficient option, which allows providers to charge whatever they want. Then the insurance company can come up with reasons not to pay and put the client on the line for the cost.
It's gambling, so the house always wins, except it's worse with insurance because you could only win by losing.
Health insurance would make sense if it was cheap. My parents used to have "major medical" plan, indemnity vs very high bills, not healthcare just literal insurance. But it was cheap.
Now I have the High Deductible with HSA plan, same thing except it comes with some free preventative care. But it's expensive! What the fuck!
I disagree with the idea that all insurance is a scam. Insurance is a risk mitigation tool. I'm fine with paying a little bit of money every month so that my family is financially secure if I die unexpectedly or I can replace my home if it burns down. All in all, insurance can be a fairly good and cost effective risk mitigation tool.
The problem is that an insurance business model is incompatible with healthcare. It's not likely that I'm going to die within the next year. It's very likely that I'm going to need medical care within the next year. As we [Americans] have increasingly leaned on health insurance to pay for routine medical care, health insurance companies have done a great job of muddying the water and making it more and more difficult to understand how the process works, much less get good quality medical care. There's a clear conflict of interest between making money and paying for medical care.
Insurance itself isn't bad. But health insurance is bad. The fact that health issurance is often tied to employment is also bad. Ironically, it has a negative impact on the economy. Maybe even a significant impact although that's hard to say for sure.
If politicians really cared about small businesses, they would pass a universal healthcare bill ASAP. I would bet my left arm we would see a huge increase in small businesses if the potential small business owners didn't have to worry about getting healthcare from their current employers.