"New data reveals over 15,000 Canadians died in 2023-24 while stuck on waitlists for surgeries or diagnostic scans."

Canada has 311K deaths per year; that's ~850 per day. You'll get to 15,000 on day 18.

I'd assume "closer to death" = "more likely to need surgeries or diagnoses".

"With Obamacare I pay 24,000 in premiums, 3000 per person deductible and 18000 max out of pocket."

With those numbers, I can roughly tell your age and marital status.

Do you need the Marketplace? In general, the first rule of Obamacare is only use it if you're getting a subsidy; there are often better, cheaper plans available OUTSIDE the Marketplace.

Also...I can relate about hitting the max OOP based on a specialty drug. After my heart attack, I was placed on Brillinta, at $1,100 per prescription. I remember in October handing over my credit card (after offering blood from my arm) and the pharmacist said, "Oh, no charge...you've reached your annual limit".

If that happens to you, do what I did: schedule every possible doctor's appointment you need before the end of the year! I got vision tests and audiology tests, leading to a $6,000 pair of hearing aids costing NOTHING out of pocket.

"When is trump fixing it with his secret plan"

Don't rush him! He's got concepts of a plan.

And he's got thoughts about those concepts. Many thoughts; big thoughts; big, beautiful thoughts.

Nobody ever knew health care could be this complicated.

" One of us hits our max out of pocket in March and gets everything "free" after that."

Don't tell yourself that; tell yourself you paid for it, over all those years. And don't forget to keep totally up on every doctor visit, diagnostic test, etc. Everything your plan covers ... In your case, it's very worth it to learn what they offer, particularly what they cover once you've hit the oop limit.

One more thing: it would behoove you to get an HSA, a health savings account. You would have to be covered by an HSA plan (which yours sounds like), but you get the advantage of the equivalent of a tax deduction, just for putting the money into the HSA.

And if you can't afford to max out your HSA ...
Once in your life you're allowed to transfer up to the HSA max into your HSA account from a taxable IRA, without paying income taxes on that transfer.