Insurance is based on the cost of whatever group you are in, the bigger and less "sick" the group, the better the insurance because insurance costs are mostly "clerical"/people costs (to pay Echoes :-) for all the claims processing.

It's better to have high deductibles and pay out-of-pocket and only have good hospital insurance if you are basically healthy and in a "bad" group (I'm on State-mandated insurance; I'm obese so independent insurers won't cover me and I'm too young for Medicare but my state requires any insurers that operate in my State to have a plan for people like me/the self-employed, etc. but it's very expensive). Like my husband points out, "I can pay for a broken arm (a few thousand) but not a heart transplant" (or other major hospital stay that could be hundreds of thousands of dollars). So for me we have a huge deductible (I just paid $400 out-of-pocket for my asthma meds) but good hospitalization. I have a high copay too as that cuts down on overall costs. People who want to pay a little to their doctor ($10 or no copays) and get discounted or free prescriptions; that has to come from somewhere else in the plan, either higher premiums per month or lousier care.

It's like the cost of home/apartment; you want to pay as much as you can to get the best place you can afford. There's no one else to pay; the "Government" doesn't exist/have/make any money, that's just our taxes! If one doesn't pay taxes, someone else is paying so the "average" of that (which would be Government programs) is not going to be very good.