[jjav]

> (insurance covers everything above it)

Be aware that this is not true!

What insurance-speak calls max out of pocket is not what a normal person thinks max out of pocket means.

If you have a year of high medical bills you can easily pay much more out of your real pocket than your so-called "max out of pocket" in the insurance paperwork.

That is because the insurance company only credits what they feel like it towards their accounting of max out of pocket, not what you actually paid.

I don't have an insurance bill handy here to quote numbers but in their monthly or quarterly statements you can find what you have to pay and what they credit against your tally of yearly out of pocket. The latter is often less than the former.

> Health insurance in America costs between $500-$1000 a month for an entire family.

You're off by a lot. About $3500/mo here in CA for my family. Employers usually pay a good portion of that (but it varies) but if you go unemployed on COBRA, it's all out of pocket.