Just to clarify - my insurance plan had a maximum out of pocket of $6000 for the year, which we hit.
(My daughter broke her arm in Feb which was $3000 and this accident was another $3000).


The problem is, the max out of pocket doesn't apply to out of network billing. If the provider does not have any contract rates, there is nothing saying they "have to accept $XXX" for it. So they can bill whatever they want.

So last year, our actual paid out of pocket was $6000 in addition to the $21,000 premium itself.

$21,000 + $6000 in deductibles to insure a healthy 35, 32 and 2 year old... sounds legit. More like sounds like we're subsidizing the hell out of the baby boomers that have utterly screwed our generation.