>>>So it has nothing to do with the fact that hospitals charge more for an overnight stay than the Ritz in Paris?
>
>If you had a huge fund set aside,
Life insurers can do that.
They guarantee to pay a fixed amount (defined benefit) and the number of people dying per year at given ages is fairly predictable.

Lets look at our teacher in 1955.
The first cardiac bypass surgery was performed in 1960.
The MRI didn't exist.
I could go on.

They extend life, for sure, and reduce life insurance premiums but that life extension runs up some hefty medical bills that my teacher's insurers couldn't possibly had set aside funding for.

In fact, pay as you go is really the only practical way to fund health insurance.
Basically you divide the total payout by the number of participants and that's next year's premium.
If you were lucky enough to dodge an illness, you paid for the guy who got the quadruple bypass.

Blaming my teacher doesn't make sense.