https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/health/hospitals-prices-medicare.html

My medicare buddies and I have received WEIRD statements from hospitals that read something like this:

Charges: $70,000.00
Medicare paid: $10,000.00
Adjustment: $60,000.00

Since we didn't have to reach into our pockets, it wasn't costly to us, but we wondered what was really going on.

This article from the NYT explains it.

There is collusion between the hospitals and private insurers to inflate insurance premiums.

Here in our little school district here in Hamilton, NJ, we learned recently that the broker who provided the health insurance for district employees received annual commissions of over $1 million.
The higher the premiums, the higher the commission.
The higher the hospital cost, the higher the premium.

This explains why a hospital in Chicago paid Michelle Obama, who wouldn't know and aspirin from a bed pan, more than $300K/yr.
It explains why individuals who are not insured go bankrupt after a hospital stay.

Forget Trump.
Let's lock up some of these hospital execs.