Comics

The problem is that insurance companies negotiate with hospitals to receive discounted rates of service. If you're completely uninsured and receive treatment, you're going to be charged the non-discounted price. There are things like a Health Savings Account which works exactly how you'd want, you just pay into a pre-tax account and can use that money for medical expenses, and while that gives you access to discounted prices you'll still need to build up thousands before you can realistically seek medical care.

The system has been fully captured by healthcare companies, who use their full control of the system to make it as awful as possible. You're damned if you, and damned if you don't.