I somewhat understand the reasoning for #2, though. Hospitals are charging insane prices. Perhaps prices are high because hospitals aim to keep the price profitable when it's negotiated lower with the insurance agency, but I fear that it's more because they feel they can do it because people's lives are at stake. Having the insurance agency step in and prevent hospitals from fleecing customers may actually be a benefit, though perhaps agencies have become corrupted and just as profit-seeking as the hospitals. I'm just not convinced that removing insurance agencies would suddenly lower prices.

Covid-19 pandemic supply chain issues caused prices to surge to meet the new costs, but when those issues were resolved, prices remained high because people absorbed the costs and the companies saw no reason to lower them after realizing incredible profit growth. I wonder if we would see the same problem if we removed insurance agencies without regulating the hospitals: with the powerful middle management of insurance agencies gone, hospitals would wield incredible billing power over individuals, who might end up seeing higher bills from their hospital visits.

I don't mean to advocate for things to stay the same; I definitely think things need to be changed. I just don't see the insurance agencies as the problem in the system, in that their removal would repair the majority of our billing issues. I instead see them as potentially a target of a lot of our grievances without actually potentially being the cause of every one of them.

A different person on the internet had some thoughts that seem compelling: Noahpinion — Insurance companies aren't the main villain of the U.S. health system — https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/insurance-companies-arent-the-...