Yeah, I'm aware that cash prices for medical services are much less (having spent most of the '00s without health insurance). But the prices are still completely arbitrary across the board.
On what basis can we, as laymen, say whether a CT scan should be $300, $3000, or $30K? What's the difference between a CT scan that is price gouging, and a CT scan that is too cheap to be sustainable without being subsidized by overpayments from insurance companies?
I'm not arguing with you, but the fact there is a "cash price" and an "insurance price" is fucked up. A few years ago I read an article about a guy that if he needed medical services he would tell the provider he didn't have insurance to get the cash price, which ended up being cheaper than the co-pay or deductible he would owe. Then he would turn the payment into his insurance company to be applied against his annual deductible. It's messed up that people have to go to these lengths. I'm against universal medical care, but the healthcare industry is in need of regulation.