I've also had lots of weird and frustrating insurance and doctor issues, but am surprised COBRA was your best bet or that your wife being high-risk was relevant

I've also had lots of weird and frustrating insurance and doctor issues, but am surprised COBRA was your best bet or that your wife being high-risk was relevant. In the current system your preconditions shouldn't be a factor in the price. I am also high-risk and have always found that the Obamacare market had prices close to or lower than the unsubsidized cost of an employer provided plan. The most frustrating for me is that the doctors can't even guess how much their facility will charge for the treatment they decide is necessary, much less how much the bill will be after insurance gets their cut. It is a major barrier for me to get MRIs and blood tests. Especially blood tests, which seem to range in cost from practically free to thousands of dollars for a single blood test panel. It's infuriating, and no matter how closely I read the insurance fine print I still cannot guess what the hospital and insurance plan negotiated ahead of time. Kaiser was way better, at least there the incentives were aligned to sane billing procedures.