[maxerickson]

Why is small claims court better than a law flipping the default liability?

It's basically insane that we require individuals to sign a blanket billing authorization prior to receiving care. Perhaps the hospital should have to provide a maximum amount that is at risk (hopefully creating pressure to operate in a sensible way).

[gosub100]

And what voter would ever want things to be this way? What constituent, rich or poor, conservative or liberal, says "ya know, I like paying for healthcare even when I have insurance and I'm going to keep voting for the one who keeps this status quo!" ?

Some very clever people have architectected an effective scam to prevent the democratic system from solving this. And I'm not referring to a republicans vs democrats debate about free socialized care vs hands off privatization. I'm talking about little steps that chip away at the problem like the one you described. Or forcing them to pay first, and only later have a debate about it. Or holding insurance liable for injury resulting from denying coverage. There is plenty of room for improvement and yet the representatives manage to accomplish nothing along these lines.