[pauljurczak]

Well, yes. In a better parallel universe. In our real world, the healthcare industry in the USA is a for-profit business with few partial exceptions. The costs are ruinous and the trend is not sustainable. It is naive not to think about costs, unless you are wealthy. The cost of blood tests done at a local hospital's lab will almost always be much higher than at a large national network like Labcorp or Quest. Even after insurance contract repricing. Quality is the same. Why would you pay more? The doctor belonging to a local hospital network will be inclined to send your blood work there and use "Hippocratic Oath doesn't say anything about pricing" as an excuse...