While I agree that healthcare costs are insane, no cost saving measures are ever going to make heart surgery or cancer treatments affordable for most people out of pocket. Just won't happen in our lifetime.

And that is the beauty of private insurance, it pools risk but it does so voluntarily. Is it perfect? No, nothing is. But it's far better than the alternatives.

Good points here

There will probably always be a need for major medical insurance, but for the day to day stuff, bring down the costs and everyone can afford to go when they need to go and pay for it themselves.

And while they say people don't pay attention to what things cost, because insurance covers it, in actuality, they don't want you to know the details.

Ever try to get an itemized bill from a hospital stay and doctor visits, and then an itemized bill & payment coverage from insurance, and then mesh the two?

$3,000 a night? That's a bargain these days!
My facility charges alone (not including doc fees, labs, etc, etc) for watching TV and ordering room service food for 3 nights at Providence, Everett was over $15,000.

When my son was born, they needed a second doctor to stand by during the C section.
$6,000 for 30 minutes of standing there watching.

They also have companies that specialize in recapturing missed charges.
They go through old billing records and try and piece together what could have been missed, get a percentage of the take.
"I see a charge for the morphine, but not for administering it, the use of an infusion pump, and the tubing....OK, add another $193.50"
Fucking insane.

Biggest reason is because insurance and Medicare/Medicaid pay only a fraction of the amount. Most of the time they will agree to pay about 1/3 to 1/2 of a bill so hospitals jack the price up to get enough to maintain operation. If you don't have insurance most of the time they will reduce this cost as well because they know that 50 bucks for an aspirin is ridiculous. It is stupid that you have to fight for common sense things but this is how insurance and the government have screwed up the entire system.

And if you got away with 3K a day you are lucky. Don't spend a week in an ICU.

You really want to see healthcare costs plummet? End the crony-capitalism of state lines and let insurances compete nation-wide.

Granted, Mike Kriedler might finally have to earn a real living but you'd see your premiums go down.