Another question you should ask is this:
Of the $407K bill, what portion is due to regulatory requirements and legal decisions of the last half century that keep raising the cost of medical care?
Is it possible to take all of that away and come down to the actual/real costs of providing the actual/real health care that this bill covers?
Your point is a valid one, but the cost of the regulatory burden probably isn’t as big a part of that bill as you might think. Medical care for these complicated procedures is expensive no matter how you look at it. The doctors need to be paid, the medical staff needs to be paid, it costs a fortune to build and maintain a hospital, etc.
“Of the $407K bill, what portion is due to regulatory requirements and legal decisions of the last half century that keep raising the cost of medical care?”
And, how many illegal aliens or EBT card holders were given the same procedure at no cost? Somebody has to cover that too. That person is the citizen who has an income, is here legally and can be “attached.” Several years ago I spent 20 minutes in surgery for hernia repair. I was in the hospital 4 hours total. The cost was $16,000. Because I had a catastrophic policy the hospital gave a $4,000 courtesy discount I would not have qualified for as their opening gambit. The insurance negotiated it the bill to $8,000 of which I paid $2,500...what I felt the procedure was actually worth.
Why did it start out so high? The emergency room was full of Hispanics who spoke no English and were being treated free.
Another question is what is the price that is usually paid by insurance companies? Is it closer to $100K or $200K? Then that's the "real" price. When you're not covered by some pricing group, and have some cash, the $407k price is used for predatory billing behavior. Both insurance companies, and people who don't have the money readily at hand, pay a lot less.