9 years ago, when I was in the foreign student freshman orientation session, one of the first things that they talked about/warn to us is about how crazy expensive it is to get the medical care you need here in USA. He then talked about his experience and how he is still paying for his bills, even though he has a health insurance, and how he would be better off dead than paying the bills without health insurance.
And so after the orientation I asked why is it so expensive here than what it would cost me in my home country for say, when I broke my arm or something. He then ramble about how here you will get the BEST care with the BEST doctors (plural, because yes you need 5 different doctors to say you have a broken arm), BEST nurses (you need more than 1 nurse to attend you), BEST drugs (god forbid you to have 1 pain killers.. need moar!!), BEST ambulance.. the BEST of everything..
I stared at him as I was looking at a guy that just paid a full price sticker on a new car in the lot.. wow I thought.. here I am thinking people here would have some kind of COMMON SENSE (last time I checked USA is not a third world country) but nope..
Safe to say I never bought a health insurance here because by NOT paying a health insurance here I can buy 2-3 roundtrip tickets a year and still have money left for dental surgery, broken arms/legs, appendix surgery or what have you back home.. why? because we would settle to just have a GOOD ENOUGH health care that's subsidized by the goverment.
And no I kid you not. Have a friend shifted some bone on his arm, bought a ticket home, got it fixed, spend a week resting and goofin around, and pay them all less than i would if I have the procedure here.. pathetic & a joke.. that's all I can say about health care industry here.