Catastrophic policies used to cause people to go into bankruptcy , a person how had to stay in the hospital and have surgery  would have to pay 20% to 50% of a the bill depending on their policy. Before Obamacare a co-worker of mine had insurance through the company we worked for , He had back surgery and got stuck with paying $60,000 out of a $260,000 hospital bill. Obama put a cap on the maximum out of pocket cost a person could get and it let you choose the size of the out of pocket coast . It also allows people who had cancer to get affordable insurance for the first time in years .