[mindslight]

Take another look at that chain of bills. I would guess that if the initial bill was for $2000, the hospital only received $800 or so total. So insurance paid half, you paid half, but you think insurance paid for much more when really they just swatted away a fraudulent price.

Yes, very few here have been on the receiving end of a $143k magnitude extortion. The people who have are less likely to be writing HN comments and more likely to be slaving away in the mines of Rura Penthe. But these exceptional stories fit the exact pattern that anybody who has interacted with the healthcare racket has experienced, even though most ultimately dodge the (biggest) bullet.