>>Do you know what a "hospital chargemaster" is? And you know that the chargemaster procedure is generally only regulated in Maryland and only made public in California? This is a rather important piece of the puzzle here that tends to get overlooked.
LOL. Yes I know a little about Chargemaster. Bill's $15K daily hotel charge will be comprised of inflated Chargemaster charges, but it's not the reason for the inflated charges. In effect Chargemaster is a glorified price list bearing little (no) relationship to the actual costs to the facility. Price lists exist abroad as well, but without the Emperor's clothes meme that sky-high margins are the norm.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
