Nothing says “American” quite like asking how much is this life saving procedure gonna cost before you consider it…
Bonus for how hospitals ask how you are paying before they ask you what’s wrong.
I remember getting a procedure that was covered 100% by my insurance. Which was sort of surprising because the insurance I had was horrible and provided by the hospital I worked at. When I went in they were trying to get me to pay a copay, I kept iterating that I was told by insurance this was covered. They said we’ll just get you prepped and figure it out later.
I never got a bill.
Well see, they do actually have a list that says what everything costs. It’s called the Charge Master List. They just don’t want you to see that list, because they think it puts you at a negotiating disadvantage. It’s the magic invisible hand of the free market, at work to make pricing information available to all in the most efficient manner. (/s)
Hospital chargemasters have limited utility to the average patient, as they reflect the maximal “sticker rate” the hospital rate charges per procedure, rather than negotiated rates or cashpay rates.
They’re a good tool for figuring out the ceiling of what you might pay, just not a silver bullet for knowing what you will pay.
Modern problems, require modern solutions:
https://archive.org/details/usa-tm-31-210-improvised-munitions-handbook
