It is robbery. Hospitals in the US get rich, rich, rich. I live in Norway with excellent socialized medicine... no need to try to negotiate costs ahead of time. What crap.

There are private hospitals in Norway also, if you don't want to wait for a non-emergency procedure. A friend of mine didn't want to wait several months for a hernia operation, so he went to a private, for-profit hospital, and paid the equivalent of $2500 for his surgery. This is actual cost + profit. $2500.

I read a post from a guy who had a hernia operation in the United States and it cost $6600 total, the majority paid for by insurance.

So if the whole thing can be done at a profit for $2500 in Norway, why does it cost 164% more in the U.S.? Because you're paying to make insurance companies and hospital CEOs rich. They are laughing at you as they funnel their money into lobbyists to oppose health care reform. And their message is winning out, at your expense.

It drives me crazy to see the resistance in the United States to providing healthcare. Obamacare is a step in the right direction, but moving to a single-payer system would cut medical costs in half in the US, save everyone money, and the country would be happier, healthier and wealthier.

Grrrr.