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Stats are not THE way. THE way is a complete, disclosed record of every last visit or procedure charged for vs gratis, vs all the major demographic markers. Some won't need demographics, such as when I had a music ear bud removed from my ear.

Despite paying an $80 co-pay, it cost me around $250 total only because I had coverage on my HSA. If I did not have coverage, and if the hospital did the work and didn't do it for free, it would have charged me ~ $480.

The check-in and wait was about 15 minutes. The discussion with the nurse assistant was about 1 minute. With the doctor, the discussion was about 1 minute. The actual work time: ~ 45 seconds..., not counting the time it took for them to use my mobile to shoot a picture of the blockage.

After that sticker shock, feeling injustice, I returned to the hospital weeks later and asked the very same NA why they don't warn people of the costs of EXPENSIVE non-emergency procedures. He explained that they don't get into the costs of things. I asked him would have been allowed to know the price had I checked with patient services in advance. He said unlikely since prices vary, and since PS would have been closed on Saturday AM or before I arrived. I told him I could have gotten a pair of tweezers from Walgreens for ~ $10 and had a friend do it for me had I known the price in advance. Eventually, a few patients started eavesdropping, some looking sullen or worried about their OWN expenses.

This is BS. They have databases chock-full of what they would charge for those having no insurance, what they'd charge for co-pays and such, and they don't have to inflate the numbers and then "discount" them the way they do.

If "business proprietary" didn't enter the picture, there might be a great deal more transparency for comparisons. As long as there is no law compelling hospitals to put up a price menu, people in non-threatening, yet painful situations will walk in and be blindsided.

That said, tho, I have a friend who was the beneficiary of free medical service from a major US university medical center that treated him no-charge for about $80,000 worth of services after he burned himself very badly in his kitchen. He had the good luck of being the LAST patient to receive gratis treatment from them. For him, a few minutes or maybe an hour later would have meant having far worse burns appearances the rest of his life. He still, though, had to go overseas to a less expensive country to complete the rest of the rehab, and it took MONTHS to emerge from that.

Another time, over 15 years ago, I had strep (found out later), and had no coverage. I walked into a hospital after hours, and it seemed all quiet. But, to take my temperature, the check-in nurse -- upon finding out I had no medical plan -- told me it would be $100 to take my temperature. I left. I didn't give a damn whether I'd possibly die later. I was afraid of what other charges would come just to do a blood or saliva test to find out what was wrong.

But, another time, i got chickenpox around age 32, and when I went into the medical center, they cleared out all the old people from the lobby while a few others scampered and hobbled when they heard the desk nurse say, aloud, "Hmmm, looks like you have chickenpox..." You should have SEEN the way those elders hobbled and wobbled and bobbed to get out of there. I didn't know what it was, but but bumps only appeared suddenly, not really gradually, and went from minor around 8Am to severe by around 930 AM. I got a prescription, drank a lot of Aloe Vera extract, used Aloe cream on my body, and ditched the cortisone-based crap that was giving me panic attacks and hyperventilation. When I woke up my stand-by doctor for the 2nd or 3rd time in the 2 AM or so hour (via a paging service, hehehe), he sighed/bellowed "You used too much cream! Wash it off and go back to sleep!"