>That seems outrageous to me. The uninsured individual has to buy the prescription and pay a penalty for not being insured on top of that.
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>We agree on that point. I received my EOB for the hip replacement and I find it outrageous that the hospital billed by insurance company 44,709.22 for the implant, surgery, 3 and 1/2 day hospital stay etc. The hospital settled for $22,682.10 which also seems outrageous to me.

I do not think you've paid to much on that one. Costs are even slightly higher here (22K in euro's) but certainly a lot less than $44K