kane you're absolutely correct.

I found out first hand in 2002 when I had my neck and both arms broken in a bad auto accident. I had no insurance. Hell, I was 40 years old and healthy as a horse (still healthy as a horse by the way).

Ended up in ICU for a month and by the time the medical bills all came in...it was almost a quarter MILLION dollars!!!

Once I was back on my feet I began negotiating with the hospital.

The final meeting happened when they told me that since I didn't have insurance they were going to charge me the "REAL" cost!
I was shocked.

I ended up paying a little over $20,000. And $9,000 separately to the surgeon who saved my life on the operating table.

The hospital administration flat out told me that the prices are jacked up with insurance.

It's a complete and total scam that makes money for the insurance company, the hospital....and funnels back to Washington D.C. in the form of "campaign contributions"

I dont take the medicine I'm supposed to. It's around $500 a month. Not viagra or birth control, heh.

For sure. Most people go to the hospital and then the bill comes, they look at it and put it in a drawer because insurance will pay for it. A friend of mine had to have a neck surgery. The bill came and it was $40K. She laughed it off because insurance paid for all but about $200 of it. Had she been forced to pay for that out of her pocket you know she would have gone over it with a fine tooth comb and negotiated like you did.

No they wont. Look at dentistry they arent giving it away and people now go overseas and south america for dental surgery because its expensive here. There is no real insurance for it and its not rock bottom. You cant even price shop, most wont tell you shit on the phone.

That's the point of insurance. And the insurance company is beating up Doctors and the hospitals on pricing.

The way it was explained to me by the company that owned the hospital I was in (and negotiated my bill) The insurance companies and the corporations that own the hospitals are hand-in-hand on the whole thing.

It's the medical equivalent of "hidden pre-checked x-sales" lol

Basically yes. I was just in the hospital about 3 weeks ago. I stayed 3 nights. The bill is around $18K. My shitty insurance may or may not pay for it, we are still waiting to see about that. The hospital finance department basically has told me if the insurance doesn't pay they can hook me up with a policy that will allow me full insurance coverage, but I have to go to their facilities. So basically they are becoming their own insurance company.

when it comes to drugs and insurance the insurance company sets a maximum that they will pay for a particular drug. the pharmacy then charges that max, plus any co-pay. If you have a $10 co pay and the insurance max is $100 the pharmacy charges $110 for it. However, if you walk in and want to pay cash there is no limit on what they can charge. They can charge you $220 cash for the same medicine. If you call different pharmacies asking for prices on medicine often times they will ask you if you want the "cash price" which means they likely charge a different amount for cash customers.