re: Rush on pre-existing ...it's not insurance, it's welfare

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If you want those coverages, you should certainly be able to buy a plan that includes them.

But you should also be able to buy a lower cost plan that doesn't include them. For instance, if you are a 65 year old woman... just maybe you don't need maternity coverage. But you get it. Or if you are man. You probably don't need maternity coverage then, either.

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Exactly.

One advantage to the old system was you had the choice between insurance and comprehensive health care. If you chose insurance it was cheaper and rightfully so.

Patients who chose insurance were typically healthy people who never used the system. They paid in every month and covered other people, unless a catastrophic event happened. The other possibility was they had a chronic condition and bought a catastrophic plan so the premium savings could be used for their meds.

With the ACA, they have to play four certain "essential" benefits they can't use, but it's perfectly OK for the mandatory plan to leave them on the hook for thousands of dollars if their needs aren't on the politically preferred list of services. That's why you still see charitable fundraisers for medical bills.