>> Its not. No and that's really my point - we have this heavily regulated mix of public and private that I don't think anyone fully understands, makes it a ni

>> Its not. No and that's really my point - we have this heavily regulated mix of public and private that I don't think anyone fully understands, makes it a nightmare for consumers, gives a heavy advantage to existing players, has massive amounts of overhead, etc. People who say things about wanting a free market don't seem to be pushing us in that direction, only pushing against reform. I recently switched to an HDHP / HSA and I feel like it's much better. One of the problems is that insurance has stopped being about risk management because (almost) everyone has it and wants it to cover everything, so it's just a game of group negotiating on a group tab. I had the plan because my company negotiated it with the insurance company who had rates and networks negotiated and I was just supposed to go to the doctor and now pay whatever else was left but who knows what that was. But now my doctor's not even in-network. With an HSA, I can just pay her directly and forget the rest of it.