1. You can get some of the tax break if you use HDHP plan + HSA. It's limited to about 7K though, because if everybody would take big tax breaks, who'd pay for those trillion dollar bills they're passing every year now?
2. US healthcare system is incredibly hostile to people trying to pay their own costs and designed to be maximally obscure and confusing. Imagine buying a car where your car dealer, tire manufacturer, window glass manufacturer and upholstery supplier bill you separately. Now imagine when you come to the dealer and ask how much the car would cost, they shrug and tell you you'd know when the bills come, just relax and sign on the dotted line. If you really insist, they could give you an estimate - something between 1K and 100K dollars - but they don't guarantee anything, it's just an estimate. And no, you can't choose the suppliers upfront or know which ones they'd use - this you'd also know only when the bills come. And no, there's no way to know when or how it happens - they bills would just show up one day as a surprise. Sounds like a nice experience? That's how the healthcare system works, day to day.
3. The frustrating part is that most of the people think it's the only way to manage it, and those that don't think that the only way to fix it is to nationalize the whole thing. I mean we can create insanely complex supply chains (think how many people cooperated on making a car? And you still can come to a single place and pay for it with a simple transaction at cost known in advance - magic!) - but somehow healthcare is where it all disappears and figuring out the separation of labor thing becomes the problem of the end user.
2. US healthcare system is incredibly hostile to people trying to pay their own costs and designed to be maximally obscure and confusing. Imagine buying a car where your car dealer, tire manufacturer, window glass manufacturer and upholstery supplier bill you separately. Now imagine when you come to the dealer and ask how much the car would cost, they shrug and tell you you'd know when the bills come, just relax and sign on the dotted line. If you really insist, they could give you an estimate - something between 1K and 100K dollars - but they don't guarantee anything, it's just an estimate. And no, you can't choose the suppliers upfront or know which ones they'd use - this you'd also know only when the bills come. And no, there's no way to know when or how it happens - they bills would just show up one day as a surprise. Sounds like a nice experience? That's how the healthcare system works, day to day.
3. The frustrating part is that most of the people think it's the only way to manage it, and those that don't think that the only way to fix it is to nationalize the whole thing. I mean we can create insanely complex supply chains (think how many people cooperated on making a car? And you still can come to a single place and pay for it with a simple transaction at cost known in advance - magic!) - but somehow healthcare is where it all disappears and figuring out the separation of labor thing becomes the problem of the end user.