For me, there's no "tl;dr" or "spam" when it comes to these personal stories. I'd rather read a dozen screenfuls of concrete evidence than even one screenful of ideological declarations.

I'm starting to realise how lucky I've been when I've visited the US over the last decade: I've bought travel insurance here in Australia for a few hundred dollars, with a deductible of... wait for it... about a hundred bucks.