bama - I agree with most of your post. However, on the pricing take a look at JohnZ's post on August 9. Hospital pricing is way too complicated to get into here. It would take a very long post and still wouldn't cover it all. Short version - everything is driven initially by Medicare and Medicaid. Government holds the big stick. For quite a while hospitals (and doctors) covered the shortfall from Medicare and Medicaid payments by charging insured patients more. Insurance companys finally said enough and started playing hardball. If you don't accept this we'll cut you out of our network. Providers negotiate best deal they can get, then accept that that is it. Their variable costs may get covered but not all of the fixed. They try to charge uninsured patients the full load, but most uninsured don't have the assets to cover the charges. Result, taxpayers (state, federal, and local) pick up the difference. Second result, many smaller hospitals (and quite a few large) are out of business. Also, the $7000 vs $800. The $7000 is what the full cost probable is. The federal govt or the insurance company will not pay full cost, so they end up taking what they can get. I guarantee you the $800 does not cover their real costs.