On basis do you assert that $5,520 is ridiculously expensive? What price would not be ridiculous? What makes the cited plan decent and the other lower-premium options not decent?
Also the plan that you claim was comparable before the ACA was probably not comparable at all because it had a lifetime coverage cap. So it was objectively worse because if you got a serious and expensive medical condition you would have been cut off at some point.
I have a pretty expensive PEC and my state had a high risk pool that was much less expensive than what I pay now. (To be clear, I think the preexisting condition exclusion ban is wonderful, just adding a data point to the conversation)