Insurance is only the answer if you're solvent. You're protecting what you've got, so if there's a bad accident/occurrence, the money will be there to make you whole again.
Medicare. For all.
The vast majority of Americans who cannot afford insurance/healthcare...are NOT solvent. They're broke, they don't have a reliable income source, or they don't have a company/corporation to partner with to defer some of the cost of the premiums, which rise higher and higher as we continue to burden for-profit companies with unprofitable regulations and insureds.
I don't sell (commercial) insurance to businesses who aren't profitable (at least in the long-term), and most businesses that are teetering on the brink don't buy insurance...care to guess why?
If we agree that everyone needs to have access to complete medical care, then there needs to be Medicare for All. The amount you pay is done per paycheck, just like SS, or like Medicare is now. If you choose to purchase private coverage instead, you can deduct up to the amount you would be taxed or the amount you pay in premiums for that year. Additional insurance, that's up to you.
I work in insurance, and it's a for-profit business. You sell insurance, you invest the premiums and the commissions, and the insurance company wins or loses based on what/whom they've chosen to insure, and how they invest the premiums. Insurance companies shouldn't have mandated burdens to insure already-sick people, they should get to insure who they want. The only regulation (Besides financial) should be there to make sure the insurance companies pay what they owe per claim.
This diary is NOT about defending the (quite frankly) idiots who choose to work at or invest in health insurance companies...there's no possible way that the business model can work, or stay ethical in paying the claims. It's their fault for participating, but it's not their fault they can't be profitable. Don't force for-profit companies to operate in ways that aren't profitable, if doing so won't hurt innocents. How do we keep them from hurting innocents? Medicare for All.