When I see a market behaving insane, I want to know what market incentives and government regulations are distorting it. In your case, the knowledge that you sa

When I see a market behaving insane, I want to know what market incentives and government regulations are distorting it. In your case, the knowledge that you saw a specialist would make a logical underwriter raise the price, but you should be able to get insurance at some price. The big regulation that I know of is the tax treatment that makes it much cheaper for insurance to be purchased through employers. This has prevented a robust individual insurance market from developing - it would be very costly for the insurance companies to build out this service for a small percent of the market. The other major regulations that increase cost and reduce choice are required coverage regulations. There is always some heartstring pulling to get treatment X included in the required bundle.