I was always given an opportunity of choice in the US and I never paid that much. I can't really choose a hospital here, the public ones are all the same and the mandatory insurance makes private care unavailable. I was also never met with such bad behavior towards patients, yeah it wasn't perfect, but it was helpful and I was treated as a person, not a piece of shit that is disturbing and isn't worth a look.

I'm in no way praising the US system though. Just saying that public hospitals have been tried and it's really bad. I think the Swiss system is good.