I think the crime is that the costs are so arbitrary. When hospitals can charge 10 times as much for the same procedure depending on how you are going to pay, s

I think the crime is that the costs are so arbitrary. When hospitals can charge 10 times as much for the same procedure depending on how you are going to pay, someone is getting screwed. Even if your insurance covers it, you're paying that insurance, and the reason the cost for your insurance remains so high is because the insurance company has negotiated to pay $2500 for a $250 procedure. I mean, when the insurance company negotiates to pay higher prices, they are lying to overstate their benefit and justify higher prices. Hospitals are complicit in this scheme. But hospitals make more from higher margins, and insurance companies can justify greater prices. It's a broken system when both buyer and seller want to negotiate the highest price they can in secret, away from the person who is funding the buyer.