Health insurance at its core is very simple. You put money in, you go to doctor, insurance pay doctor. But in the USA, the insurance denies everything they possibly can. Money put in doesn’t ever see a doctor or your health costs, it goes right to the stockholders…
So why doesn’t someone just make a non-profit health insurance company where there’s no stock, no executives, just public servants and aggressive price negotiation where your medical bills are actually paid with the money put in?
As soon as a politician attempts to do so in a serious fashion, they will have to fight the entire lobbying (see bribery) might of the insurance indistry.
Thats why im amazed Mitt Romney (IIRC he was governer at the time) was able to do what he did in Massachusettes (state mandated healthcare with a state run insurer, along with private entities not wanting him out of office). That system threaded the political needle, the dems got their state run healthcare marketplace, and the repubs got their “this is good for business” from their handlers, and once the paint dried, he still had the clout to move to up to congress and make a run for the white house. Later, the ACA/ObamaCare was based off that system, yah kids, ObamaCare is technically a Republican invention (say that at thanksgiving and see which relatives squirm).
Thats about the most “for the public good” model we could make at the time to make most everyone happy, and its not great. Some of the regulations like “no pre-existing condition denials” are pretty damn important now, to the point that .95 cant throw the baby out with the bathwater without pissing a lot of people off.