When my son was born in 1999, the bill showed two prices - one was the price for the insurance company, which was around $5000, and one was the price without insurance, which was about $20,000.

Luckily, we had the insurance, so it was covered, but I asked about it anyway. I was told that the hospital had negotiated a lower price with the insurance company, so I said that presumably they still make a profit from the insurance payout, so why can’t uninsured patients pay 4x more for the exact same service? They literally looked at me like I asked in a foreign language, and repeated that they had negotiated a lower price with the insurance company.

“I understand that,” I kept saying, “but why can’t you offer that price to your uninsured patients?”

“Because we negotiated a special price with the other insurance companies.”

“I understand that, but…”

Fucking predators.