> These prices are <25% of the insurance "discount" prices
There are some clever insurance companies whose entire model is "tell the hospital you don't have insurance, get the cash price, pay it with this debit card we give you."
There are some clever insurance companies whose entire model is "tell the hospital you don't have insurance, get the cash price, pay it with this debit card we give you."
It's pretty perverse that you, an insured person, would have to lie about having insurance because the provider would charge you more for being insured.
It's not illegal here, but in any case nobody asks, I just tell them I'm paying cash.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/usc-brookings-schaeffer-on-he... (Fixed indemnity health coverage is a problematic form of “junk insurance”)