Anyone who has spent time in a hospital knows that it can be an unpleasant experience. Outside of the physical and mental trauma caused by a medical emergency, hospital care is expensive. This video lays out some of the reasons hospital care in the U. S. is so expensive.
In the U.S. it is often thought that private companies do a more efficient job at producing goods and services at lower prices. However, American healthcare costs are higher than many other countries.
The price for the same procedure at the same hospital is not even fixed. It depends on the coverage the individual has through their private insurance. Someone with public insurance like Medicaid may end up paying lower prices because of the pool of people medicaid covers.
This is why insurance is often supplied through employers. Getting insurance in bulk for a lot of employees is much less expensive than buying individual coverage. Private insurance companies have an even smaller pool of customers than Medicaid, however, and they have to negotiate prices with the hospitals individually. This leads to varying prices for the same procedure and difficulty for the patient to know what to expect.
For more information, check out the video above.