[gherkin0]

And all you'll get from the front desk is the hyper-inflated "list price" (for the uninsured). If you have insurance, your (insurance negotiated) price is treated as Top Secret confidential information until you're actually billed. Neither the hospital nor the insurance company will disclose it to you in advance.

I have a HSA, and I've had to get stitches twice (two on a cut finger both times): one time it cost $400, the second time $1200 (same city, but different hospital and insurance). Outraged at the second price, I tried to figure out which hospital would be cheapest with my current insurance, and utterly failed.