Health Insurance

If you've been paying attention, I just had knee surgery. (I'm doing fine, thanks for asking.) After being off work for a little more than two weeks, I went back yesterday -- much to the surprise of my boss and co-workers who all thought I'd be back today. Yesterday, I received my explanation of benefits on how much the surgery cost and how much the insurance company will pay.
The doctor billed over $3200. The insurance company disallowed roughly $2200, leaving $1000. Since I had all ready made my deductible of $650 this year, my insurance company is going to pay 90%, leaving me a bill of $100.
Now, a lot of people say we don't need everyone covered by health insurance because I could just save that $1000 and put it in a pre-tax account and pay it out of my own pocket. But, here's the thing, if I didn't have insurance, I would've paid the full $3200 - not the negotiated $1000.
So, what we really need in this country is not so much health insurance, but a way that if you're not insured, you can still get this negotiated price. We need it for everything. Then, I'd sign on that we don't need health insurance.
But, I don't think the government is that good to do the negotiating and if we use a private company to do it for us, we're just going to end up right where we are now.
Anyone got any good suggestions?

God Bless