Great question. We were not responsible for the difference. The "Statement of Benefits" is a very confusing US healthcare tradition in which you're told how m

Great question. We were not responsible for the difference. The "Statement of Benefits" is a very confusing US healthcare tradition in which you're told how much you should have paid before being told what you owe. In our case, there was a corresponding "Medicare discount" (or something; it's been 8 years) and the final bill was $0. The situation is terribly regressive: people with the least money and the least likely to be able to afford healthcare and are therefore most likely to suffer high hospital costs. People with the most money get healthcare "insurance" and so get the lowest prices.