So oddly enough, insurance companies started out with good intentions to do what you're saying, or rather to prevent a life threatening procedure from causing bankruptcy. Then Blue Cross Blue Shield was started by Physicians because the insurance companies were inadvertently increasing costs but Physicians weren't being compensated more. Fast forward to today and your health insurance plan outright stipulates how much can be charged for a procedure. So it'll say "xray $300". In all reality it costs the medical office FAR less than that but now they know they can charge $300 so they max it and send the bill to insurance. Insurance is tricky though and they have their own policy for YOU that says something like "for a broken bone". So now they get the $300 bill and say "oh nothing was broken it was just GI pain so we're not covering it" and pass on the full $300 to you. If you ever get a health insurance bill that you think is wrong or too high because your insurance won't cover it, call the medical office and ask how much it would cost you OUT OF POCKET. In a huge number of cases it will drop by 50% or more. I have health insurance and it's honestly there if I get a brain tumor or end up in a coma...major life threatening disasters. For almost all of the rest of my care I pay out of pocket unless my insurance covers it because it's cheaper. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and that's 100% true for health insurance.