It might be possible to leverage a "catastrophe" health plan with paying out of pocket to a doctor of choice, but still a gamble. Because in the US, the health insurance company can pretty much do whatever it wants. If you should come up with an expensive and/or rare illness, they just shrug at you and dare you to make them pay with layers of appeals they are set up to do and you, the sick person, are not.

And ANY doctor is shackled by Standard of Care, which mandates pushing statins, putting in stents, even pushing cancer treatments with low chances of success. You can turn down treatments you find pointless or damaging, but you are still doing much of the legwork yourself.

It's been a year of me treating my autoimmune condition with diet and supplements because I read up on the research and decided they were all on the wrong track. But it's not like I saved any money: my insurance would pay most of the staggering cost of the drugs, but I would still be on the hook for hundreds of dollars a month. Now, I pay a high price for the good food and supplements which are crucial to me maintaining my health.

And none of it would help should I, heaven forbid, get hit by a bus. That is also when you need someone to pay for the staggering price of a serious injury; I don't know anyone who can do that. With insurance, you have a fighting chance to live and possibly have money again; without it, you get substandard care AND endless debt.

I think the way out is to demand better science in our medical care: we are incredibly good at trauma and horrible at chronic illness. The Virta-Health monthly cost sounds overpriced to us, who have done it ourselves; but it is much cheaper than making people sick and then treating them to no avail.

That is how we must think, because most people don't want to think about their health care. They want to show up and get fixed, like a car, and that's got to be dealt with, too.