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Most insurance is a scam.

It benefits from the unproven folk wisdom that "you HAVE to have it". It's nice to have a comprehensive plan that covers everything. As long as someone else is paying the premiums.

Otherwise, get an inexpensive catastrophic coverage policy with a $2 million limit. No prescriptions, no doctor visits, $5000 deductible. Then pay cash for everything. Standard discounts are 20%-%50 just for the asking. Shop around. Tell your doctor you are uninsured. My doctor saves all his valuable samples for uninsured patients. If your doctor won't do this, find another. Last year, I needed a CAT scan for my arm. The doc said it would cost at least $1000. I found a clinic specialized, got the scan, radiologist review and report for about $200.

Better yet, pay all your bills with credit cards and get miles (plus your discount, of course).

Buy your drugs online or at Costco.
If you end up in an ambulance or hospital, if you are lucid scan the form they want you to sign. Cross out arbitration clauses and anything else onerous -- they probably won't even notice. When you get the bill, review it with a billing administrator and question every single line. Demand that they remove anything they can't clearly justify medically. (I was charged $200 for salt water. They removed it.) If you find yourself needing an expensive operation, consider Canada or Thailand. Bumrumgrad Hospital is world class at a fraction of US cost. Combine it with a vacation and write off the travel cost as a medical expense.

Health care is really no different from other expenses.
You can pay list price and get nothing, or with a little legwork get real value at a fraction of what "everybody" pays.

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Your suggestions are easy to make but ridiculously difficult to actually do. One hospital visit will leave you with itemized bills of literally hundreds of pages, listing codes and abbreviations you have no clue about. And when you're sick, do you really have the energy or knowledge to dig into it all.
And go to Thailand for an operation? Fine if not urgent, but the travel costs ain't cheap.
I agree that our health insurance system is a farce and a tremendously inefficient burden on everyone. But unless you're all willing to adopt a single payer (meaning government paid and regulated) system, it is what we have to live with. And given the choice of dealing with it or without it, I'd much rather have the insurance (and overpay) for it than do without.