[21]

> I can think of no other business where you agree to have work done without an agreed upon price.

You can't really compare this with other businesses. Unless you want the doctors to stop the moment they hit your negotiated price (like lets say a building constructor would).

However you should be able to get a rough quote for the procedure (assuming no unexpected complications).

And I agree with you in general, US health care is a total scam (very high-quality to be fair).

[sol8]

That's good point. I wouldn't expect pricing to function like that, especially in life or death situations. In our case, this was a surgery that was planned and scheduled a month in advance and at no time was a price ever mentioned. Just a letter from Anthem saying it was covered. We didn't start to see anything on the monetary side until after it was all said and done with. In advance of the procedure I tried to find some pricing data on the surgery but struck out. Apart from some articles about hospitals in California publishing prices for procedures, I could find nothing for the east cost.