[whyileft]

Almost smells like the ACA, doesn't it?

Edit: My apologies for sounding a bit antagonistic. The ACA is currently making use of high copays for that reason and more. It also hopes to force more transparency as well as most people want more than a icd-10 code when they have to write a check for $4k.

[grzm]

Healthcare discussions can quickly devolve into flame wars. Please take extra care to comment civilly and substantially.

[whyileft]

That's a valid point. I've updated it to be less flippant. Appreciate you bringing that to my attention as there is a lot of great discussion going on in this thread.

[yummyfajitas]

There are a wide variety of routine (STD tests, birth control pills) and completely predictable (pregnancy) services where the ACA explicitly prohibits copays.

I've been told Singapore's forced savings + cat coverage plans are reasonably close to this, however. Hardly surprising given how well Singapore tends to govern.

But your broader point (or perhaps my steelman of it) that high copays are not incompatible with socialized medicine is absolutely correct.