All the commenters are anonymous, but I could swear I hear the voice of JB:
The only impediment to such a sensible system is that the American populace has sadly fallen victim to an entitlement culture-- in many spheres, but most notably in healthcare. They'd bristle at such a proposal. "What!? Me have to pay out of pocket up to $2500 per year!?", the single person earning $80K would say, totally oblivious to common sense. Yet these same people have no problem dropping $1200 on a TV, or $500 when they take their pet to the vet, or spending $150 per week to eat out at nice restaurants, or pay their mechanic $1000 when the coils blow on their car-- yet these same people, by and large, want to be able to walk into a physician's office-- a physician, who is the most competent, knowledgeable, and dedicated of professionals-- and hand them an insurance card and a $10 co-pay. That's not justice, and at some point, the American people should be spoken to in plain terms, just as I have here, and these realities should be made eminently clear to them.
...Realize this: NO OTHER PROFESSIONAL goes through as rigorous training, is more dedicated to their craft, and is more valuable than a physician. They deserve to be compensated accordingly; they currently are NOT being so compensated. Mean income for pediatricians, FP's and internists hovers around $140K now. Yeah, that's a lot of money, you may say, but think about what they have to do to get there, the nature of their profession, and also what we tolerate paying other professions such as lawyers, accountants, high level programmers, investment bankers and fund managers etc.
Have you seen some of these plasma TVs, though? The sharpness is really incredible.