this is the real reason healthcare costs so much in the US. Clear anti-competitive and monopolistic practices by the hospital/health insurance complex. Obamac

this is the real reason healthcare costs so much in the US. Clear anti-competitive and monopolistic practices by the hospital/health insurance complex. Obamacare did absolutely nothing about this one issue, other than essentially shifting the cost structures around. The billing is so ridiculous, it's comical. It literally makes no sense.. My son spent 10 days in the hospital a few months ago: total hospital bill 78K. I paid the max out-of-pocket for my Marketplace plan (about 6K). There is no way that the cost was actually 78K.. if it were, then there would be no hospitals, nor would there be any insurance companies. The economics wouldn't allow it. The only other explanation must be a concerted effort by these institutions to shield the actual costs so no one reviews all of the money changing hands behind the scenes. It also explains why these groups fought the Trump administration when it tried to mandate hospital pricing (I was no fan of Trump, but at least he, and the republicans tried). The market will never be able squeeze out these inefficiencies without government intervention.. there are too many moats already in place. It should be noted that specific hospitals/doctors will tell you how much something costs if you ask (and especially if you tell them that you have no health care). I spent a year without health care to discover this and it wasn't because I couldn't pay for it. It was just obvious to me that this was the most egregious example of state-sponsored fleecing of American citizens that I had ever seen.