But won't you be so proud when you sign up for a health plan! You can exclaim to everyone "well I did my due diligence and I signed up for a great plan! why didn't you??"

Meanwhile people in non-US countries are thinking "I don't have to think about any of this shit, at all."

... and half the time people bragging about the spectacular insurance they found have just fallen for one of those "fake insurance" scams that are now legal again. Sure, you get $1,000,000 per year of coverage -- with a per-incident cap of $1000 buried in the fine print.

And even though fake insurance is cheaper than real insurance in this country, it's not cheaper than real insurance in most single-payer countries, which is just nuts.

You'll 'sign up' for the only one your employer offers, because so few people ever consider getting direct coverage, partially because... if you have an employer that offers insurance, you can't effectively buy direct (you can't deduct the expense if you're 'eligible' via an employer, whether you take it or not). insane...

>Meanwhile people in non-US countries are thinking "I don't have to think about any of this shit, at all."

Yup. And if you opt to buy one they're far more impressive. e.g. the one I'm on has global coverage (except US lol) for like 1.5k a year.

The whole thing is just comical (Yes we'll totally cover you in Iraq...but USA you're on your own there)

Welcome to America, where the dream is that everyone can make it but reality is that large groups of people really can't.

The entire system just assumes you have insurance. Everything outside of that is a totally unpredictable financial wasteland that cannot be compared to a real marketplace in any sense. Except obviously, in reality, many people don't have insurance. This is why the whole of it is so perverse and broken.