I'm not sure if I've ever paid less than $500 for the deductible, let alone have that be a total for a year. The plans tended to be that I had to pay 10-20% after the deductible, and max out of pocket was in the thousands. This wasn't even counting premiums. On top of it all, some things just had set prices: You always had to pay some for the ER, for example. And prices have only went up since I've left the US 9 or 10 years ago. And I was pretty lucky: Family members had started jobs where the family plan for health insurance literally exceeded their pay. Heck, I had a job like that, but I didn't have a family to worry about. A lot of folks' health care sucks unless they have money or get very lucky indeed.

It doesn't sound like you know the plight of others very well.