[tsotha]

Because that $4700 isn't the cost the insurance company is paying. The real reason you can't go without insurance in the US is they're negotiating steep discounts - where I live it's supposed to average 80%.

It may well be they paid less than $600 for a procedure that lists at $4100.

And of course the government numbers don't take this into account, so what they've published is pretty much worthless.

[zecho]

I doubt it. That $4700 is what was listed in the insurance packet, then again in the bill along with a few other minor expenses incurred during the procedure, and finally paid for by insurance in a later notice to us. The 100% is because of ACA requirements.

I don't disagree with you that insurance companies negotiate different discounts, though, which is what I was trying to get at in my post regarding pricing.

[sjg007]

The gov't lists medicare reimbursement which is basically the insurance price maximum. Some insurers get better than medicare pricing.

You know what is wild though? Federal employees aren't insured by medicare but instead the federal govt pays private insurers to insure them!

If the Feds went to single payer for its employees, things would change quickly.