That varies widely by your insurance. And given that tech companies use insurance as a way to attract more employees, software employees often pay way less than that. I'm about to have a child and I will pay $0 for it. My wife's company pays everything. Even if we were using my companies insurance instead of hers, we wouldn't pay anywhere near $10k.

It is not the norm for birthing to be 100% covered even at a place like Microsoft or Salesforce, it is the norm for it to apply towards your deductible and then coinsurance ultimately going up to your out-of-pocket maximum. If yours is covered 100% that’s great but definitely not the norm

How often do you expect most families encounter major illnesses and/or babies?

I’ve literally never used my health insurance. I expect the vast majority of people are in the same boat.

This sounds like the fallacy of youth.

I never used medical care in my 20s. In my 30s, my wife and I needed a bit. In my 40s, slightly more.

On average Americans use a lot of health care.

Average of “never”, “a bit”, and “slightly more” is “a bit”, where do you get “a lot” from?