I do wonder how much of the hospitals’ reluctance to quote numbers for procedures comes with the “my cojones are bigger than yours” game they and the insurance companies seem compelled to play with each other. It’s become expected that doctors overquote fees to insurers in order to get what they consider an acceptable amount after the insurers apply a discount and then cover only part of what’s left. And they have to assume that you may report their answer to an insurance carrier. This is not a situation in which either openness or honesty serve the hospital well.
That’s what we get for insisting upon preserving the health insurance system rather than replacing it with a health system.
(The American public gets what it deserves. I just wish I wasn’t stuck with what they deserve.)
