Lots of insurance plans in other industries have deductibles in other countries, and the US certainly isn't unique in this respect. For example, deductibles are the norm in health insurance plans in Switzerland, which has a system not all that different from that in the US.
In Switzerland the deductible is annual, not per visit. Once you hit that cap, everything is free (except voluntary cosmetic stuff).
Thus, insurance actually acts like insurance, like car insurance or fire insurance, there to catch you in a bad situation, not to give you discounts on your day-to-day expenses.
In Switzerland there is a deductible for adults but everything connected to pregnancy and child-birth is deductible-free. Also, kids below 18 yrs old have mandatory insurance that is has no deductible, thus treatments for them are free.
I've seen people paying 30% of hospital bills with "full coverage" insurance. The insurance doesn't actually insure you, they just give discounts for a monthly subscriber fee. It is really really stupid.
Yes, but compared to Switzerland there is no annual cap. If you have 3 medical incidents in the same year you pay the deductible on each. This means the insurance doesn't actually protect you from financial ruin if enough bad stuff happens to you, thus defeating the point of the insurance all together.
