Best article I've read this year. Goes to the heart of what's wrong with our current health insurance system: if people paid for hospital visits with their own money they would demand to know the price for all services upfront, even if they couldn't think clearly or were in extreme pain or on their deathbed. But since they don't, hospitals take advantage of the situation and we all end up paying (via higher health insurance costs).

Here is an example of a $50 cure the ER doctors wouldn't even consider, and ended up charging over $30,000 for nothing:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/a-health-care-provider-learns-about-needing-medical-care-when-you-dont-have-insurance/2013/09/16/5aeddb70-1a1c-11e3-a628-7e6dde8f889d_story.html