And that’s the point.
In a free market the hospital couldn’t charge these prices because no one would be able to pay them.
A free market would drive the price down to the point the consumer could afford and the provider could make a profit.
In realty we cant afford them now.
Insurance, like student loans, contributes to driving cost up. We have a monopoly. Nothing like free market but it is more complicated than that. Some medicine you must have or die. What is that worth and who decides? Is it right to demand ursurous rates just because the care is required and you have been trained to provide it in mostly public financed schools? Should profit be made on misfortune? There was a time when medical facilities were mostly not for profit.
Before someone screams socialist, bull spit. We already have many things provided by the state in the public interest. Privatization of infrastructure for instance is just crony capitalization.
No I am not suggesting the boogieman single payer but self government without self discipline will not work. Medicine needs to be reigned in from its greedy ways and we cant do it by free market capitalism because we cant do without some of it at all.