Costs have gone way up; they've just re-arranged where the money comes from, and punish you for not putting more money into the system.
Ensuring everyone is covered by making it illegal to not be covered is not an acceptable solution.
http://obamacarefacts.com/health-insurance/deductible/
> The maximum deductible is equal to the maximum-out-of-pocket limit each year ($7,150 for an individual and $14,300 for a family for 2017).
That's the theory. As I noted in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13393287 experiment suggests otherwise for the out-of-pocket limit, at least....
https://content.carefirst.com/sbc/APHMMN5DRXCMMN5MN012017.pd...
The explanation is "it's a typo".
Medical and Prescription Drug combined: $6,550 individual/$13,100 family for In-Network Providers; $13,100 individual/$26,200 family for Out-of-Network Providers.
Eliminating networks is certainly something the US should do if it wants to do more than pretend that people have good access to healthcare.
But the out-of-network deductible can still apply, as far as I can tell. So can the out-of-network out-of-pocket maximum.
You've also confused deductible with out of pocket in your original post, on top of rounding up by 15%.
Those private plans you researched had crap coverage compared to the standards that the ACA set for all health insurance.
By raising the standard, premiums have gone up on some private plans and overall healthcare costs have been reduced for all Americans.