[wildzzz]

It's because insurance companies tell hospitals how much they'll pay for things but when you ask how much they actually cost, the hospital shrugs because no one is breaking down the prices. The various specialists may be independent of the hospital in terms of billing which only complicates things as you now have more than one bill (and they may be out of network for your insurance). The non-profit hospitals will usually work with people without insurance to figure how much they can afford to pay and just charge that. The actual costs are likely much more but no one really knows since insurance is likely overpaying to compensate the hospital's losses on caring for the poor.

[MiddleEndian]

It wasn't just future bills though. I waited months. I had received a bunch of bills, from them, on paper, and apparently missed some. I knew I probably missed some. Why not just tell me, in person or online, what the sum of the bills they've sent me so far is? They're calculating it at some point.

It was a decade ago, and I'm still salty about it lol. I think the hospital has a functional website now, because it's in their interest to get all of the money from customers instead of a much smaller percent from a debt collector anyway.

Regardless, I think if an organization can't tell people what they owe, it clearly doesn't need that money and should forfeit it.