[tangent128]

> With respect to financial responsibility, if the cost of the delivery is a concern...

As the GP noted, if you don't even know the order of magnitude to expect, the cost will always be a concern. The upper bound on the price is in the trillions, after all.

> If we start making hospitals list prices beforehand, then they're going to have to raise the base price for an uncomplicated birth in order to subsidize those that do experience complications.

This function is currently performed by insurance companies; a frequent criticism is that insurance should limit itself to true emergency situations, but when any routine operation can balloon in price unexpectedly, it's not irrational to want its purchase mediated through the insurance provider.

[manfredo]

While the exact prices may not be exposed, estimates from past customers can be found online without much difficulty. If you seriously think that a hospital charging trillions of dollars is a possibility, I don't think you're writing comments in good faith.

Prices negotiated with insurance companies are negotiated under conditions very different from an uninsured patient. For example, risk of non-payment is drastically higher among the uninsured. This had to be offset by charging a higher rate so those losses are made up on patients that do pay. If you offer to pay for medical procedures in cash and immediately then you can usually negotiate the price down to a fraction of the list cost.

[Wowfunhappy]

> While the exact prices may not be exposed, estimates from past customers can be found online without much difficulty.

They can?

Vox's reporting over the past couple years has suggested quite the opposite—that past prices are not easy to find, and that even when they are, your price can drastically vary from someone else's even for the same service. That's why they started this "submit your emergency room bills" project.