>> I'm a bright guy but I don't know how I'd live with the cognitive workload, stress and uncertainty over having to deal with all of this (the networks, the uncertainty over price and bills, the bills coming for weeks and months after care, the myriad involved parties, the rules and limits and interpretations and just... everything).

When you have a real issue, it takes hundreds of hours to deal with it. Smart employers know that this eventually comes out of company time and productivity, esp since most of these calls need to take place during business hours.

Smart employers will advertise "100% paid health plans, etc, etc."

Penny-wise employers, even white-collar jobs/offices, will often provide the bare-minimum coverage, and pretend it has no effect. Except it does. You can see it when your cubicle-neighbor is on a 2hr call with insurance, etc. I've had colleagues who will block a 4hr meeting on their calendar titled "calling insurance companies to figure out bills" as open protest. I've had people in the office just spend a day or two on the phone with doctors' offices, visible, both out of desperation and as a subtle form of protest for the organization's choices in health plans.