> In germany, there is a price catalog for any service, with only few exceptions, and doctors/hospitals cannot legally charge anything else for these covered se

> In germany, there is a price catalog for any service, with only few exceptions, and doctors/hospitals cannot legally charge anything else for these covered services. Now guess what the US does not have Well, we sort of do: we have Medicare's reimbursement rates, which are indeed a price catalog for every service... but only if you're covered by Medicare, of course. I've heard that price negotiations between private payers and providers are often done with reference to the Medicare rate: "I'll pay you 20% over Medicare for this."