That's both true and irrelevant. Young healthy males have no trouble getting either high-deductable coverage or conventional HMO/PPO coverage. Everybody else is playing roulette in the individual insurance market no matter what product they're trying to buy. When we started our company, we tried to get individual high-deductable coverage. None of us have any "interesting" medical histories. Denied.
The US health system is broken in ways I don't think you fully comprehend.
For the record I have family high deductible coverage and had no trouble getting it.
What was the reason you were denied? Everyone was denied? Did you try any other companies?
Perhaps state laws make a difference.
I don't know about this person's specific situation, but state laws do make a difference. In some states, the high-deductible coverage can be obtained by a single 20-something for $60ish a month. Here in NY, we have this goofy community rating law, where premiums on individual insurance plans can't be affected by your age. So there is no individual insurance option, even for 20-somethings and even with a high-deductible, that doesn't cost at least a few hundred dollars a month. Do a few searches on eHealthInsurance.com and you'll see what I mean.
Ordinary medical bills have skyrocketed as well in the current system. I have personally been charged 3 times as much without insurance as I would have with insurance for a basic blood test, with a scheduled appointment. Things are even worse at the emergency room - an uninsured friend of mine was invoiced for thousands of dollars when he went to the ER for an infection. No hospital time, just a prescription for antibiotics.
I'm not an expert on the reasons why that is the case. My understanding is that it is because 1) Health insurance companies are powerful negotiators compared to individual payers, and 2) Medicare/Medicaid pays "market rate" for services, so the market rate is driven up to increase margins on services paid for by the government. ER prices are driven up even further because the ER has to treat people even if they cannot pay.
Insurance is meant for rare, but disastrous things. Health insurance would only cover surgery, cat scans, things like that. But it would NOT cover ordinary medical bills.
Personally that's what I pay for. It's called major medical, or high deductible insurance. You have it for years and never once use it.
There's probably no chance of the US covering this type of care for everyone. But that's what classical insurance is: pool everyones money to handle a disaster.
Trying to cover people for ordinary care is welfare, not insurance.