Doesn't this bill completely undermine the insurance business? Good. I'm all for taking profit-by-default out of health care. It always seems to me that the

Doesn't this bill completely undermine the insurance business? Good. I'm all for taking profit-by-default out of health care. It always seems to me that these half way positions between universal health care and commercial end up being worse than either. ... Though I'll admit the whole system feels rigged at this point and is likely intentionally convoluted to make consumers uninformed (by level of difficulty). It's pretty damn bad right now so it's hard for me to imagine something worse. Let me give you my tangentially related anecdote. I don't currently carry insurance for a variety of reasons and I ended up in the ER earlier this year. Upon being discharged they left me with an estimated bill. The paramedics (SFFD) were very prompt about billing me (ouch). The hospital, part of a private chain, was not. Eventually I got inquiries from their patient outreach (or whatever) department — not billing, but a whole department dedicated to seeing if uninsured people qualify for a variety of government programs. Eventually I got an initial bill with a due date and three different "total due" dollar amounts (full price, their goodwill discount, and a further discount if I paid in full by the initial due date). So I navigated their ambiguous web site and paid it, and was prompted to take a survey asking how clear I thought the bill and payment system was (lol). Then I got a bill demanding the middle dollar value with a due date earlier than the initial bill (I'd already paid it well before both dates). Then I got another bill claiming I hadn't paid anything. I finally created an account to actually view my billing statements. The site claims that I owe the difference between the lowest and middle "total due" values from the initial bill. As an added bonus because I'm not carrying insurance it's not like I can complain to the state insurance commissioner.