<story><title>Leaked Scripps records reveal automated mark-ups for hospital care</title><url>https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-12-10/column-healthcare-billing-markups</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tastyfreeze</author><text>This is what happens when the buyer doesn&amp;#x27;t care what the price is because its not their money and the seller doesn&amp;#x27;t publish prices to allow comparison.  Insurance companies only care if a price is outside of &amp;quot;normal&amp;quot; as they can just increase premiums as hospitals push &amp;quot;normal&amp;quot; continually higher.&lt;p&gt;Hospitals make ridiculous profit.  Insurance companies make ridiculous profit.  Neither of them care at all what the real customer gets charged.&lt;p&gt;See also Federally guaranteed student loans</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ethbr0</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Hospitals make ridiculous profit.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;It depends.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Non-trauma hospitals in affluent areas that perform lots of elective procedures make a lot of profit.&lt;p&gt;Trauma centers in less-affluent, usually urban or rural, areas that deliver emergency care almost always run at a loss, and are subsidized by city &amp;#x2F; state &amp;#x2F; federal funds to maintain capability.</text></comment>
<story><title>Leaked Scripps records reveal automated mark-ups for hospital care</title><url>https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-12-10/column-healthcare-billing-markups</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tastyfreeze</author><text>This is what happens when the buyer doesn&amp;#x27;t care what the price is because its not their money and the seller doesn&amp;#x27;t publish prices to allow comparison.  Insurance companies only care if a price is outside of &amp;quot;normal&amp;quot; as they can just increase premiums as hospitals push &amp;quot;normal&amp;quot; continually higher.&lt;p&gt;Hospitals make ridiculous profit.  Insurance companies make ridiculous profit.  Neither of them care at all what the real customer gets charged.&lt;p&gt;See also Federally guaranteed student loans</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>handrous</author><text>&amp;gt; This is what happens when the buyer doesn&amp;#x27;t care what the price is because its not their money and the seller doesn&amp;#x27;t publish prices to allow comparison.&lt;p&gt;The norm in most systems (in developed states, anyway) is that the buyer doesn&amp;#x27;t care what the price is, to &lt;i&gt;at least&lt;/i&gt; the same degree that they don&amp;#x27;t in ours. Yet they&amp;#x27;re &lt;i&gt;all&lt;/i&gt; much cheaper than our system.</text></comment>