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Nobody asks because no one knows the price. "Shopping around" for healthcare in the US is impossible. Staff are not allowed to tell you negotiated prices. The

by ArtDev 10y ago

Nobody asks because no one knows the price. "Shopping around" for healthcare in the US is impossible. Staff are not allowed to tell you negotiated prices. They don't even know. On top of that, medical billing will jack up the prices by adding extra billing codes. Healthcare in the US is a scam. Without transparent prices it will stay this way.

WalterBright 10y ago
> impossible That's certainly not true. Try it. I've negotiated with a lot of outfits who claimed their prices were not negotiable. That's just a crock. A good friend of mine is a successful businessman, and certainly does not need to negotiate. But he negotiates everything - it's entertainment for him. I'm constantly surprised at the amazing deals he gets on supposedly "non-negotiable" items, including medical bills.
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  > That's certainly not true. Try it. Your suggestion is laughable. We asked three different hospitals what the cost for our daughter's birth was going to be; none of them could provide us with the answer until after the claim was submitted to our insurance. The out of pocket from the hospital we picked was $12k. Now negotiating a bill down after the fact? Sure, if you can't afford to pay and document it, it can be done. But if you can afford to pay? Be prepared to be raked over the coals. US healthcare sucks, and your anecdotal evidence is weak at best.
  - secabeen 10y ago
    We had a home birth, and the billing was pretty straightforward. We paid $5k for the all care through the birth. However, we knew that if at any point the pregnancy became abnormal enough that we needed to transfer to hospital, we would be stuck paying whatever the hospital and our insurer agreed to, and we wouldn't get any of the $5k we paid to the midwives back.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  - WalterBright 10y ago
    You can ask them what the uninsured bill would be.
    - toomuchtodo 10y ago
      I did. They would not provide the cash price. It does not exist.
    - quicklyfrozen 10y ago
      Why would I want to know that? It has no relation to what my actual out-of-pocket expense is going to be. And I can have the exact same test done twice and get different bills.

by ArtDev 10y ago

WalterBright 10y ago

> impossible That's certainly not true. Try it. I've negotiated with a lot of outfits who claimed their prices were not negotiable. That's just a crock. A good friend of mine is a successful businessman, and certainly does not need to negotiate. But he negotiates everything - it's entertainment for him. I'm constantly surprised at the amazing deals he gets on supposedly "non-negotiable" items, including medical bills.

toomuchtodo 10y ago
> That's certainly not true. Try it. Your suggestion is laughable. We asked three different hospitals what the cost for our daughter's birth was going to be; none of them could provide us with the answer until after the claim was submitted to our insurance. The out of pocket from the hospital we picked was $12k. Now negotiating a bill down after the fact? Sure, if you can't afford to pay and document it, it can be done. But if you can afford to pay? Be prepared to be raked over the coals. US healthcare sucks, and your anecdotal evidence is weak at best.
- secabeen 10y ago
  We had a home birth, and the billing was pretty straightforward. We paid $5k for the all care through the birth. However, we knew that if at any point the pregnancy became abnormal enough that we needed to transfer to hospital, we would be stuck paying whatever the hospital and our insurer agreed to, and we wouldn't get any of the $5k we paid to the midwives back.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- WalterBright 10y ago
  You can ask them what the uninsured bill would be.
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    I did. They would not provide the cash price. It does not exist.
  - quicklyfrozen 10y ago
    Why would I want to know that? It has no relation to what my actual out-of-pocket expense is going to be. And I can have the exact same test done twice and get different bills.