> Implementing the changes is likely to cost hospitals less than 1% of their revenue, an official on the call said. Hospitals could be fined $300 a day by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services if they don’t comply with the new disclosure rule, officials said. The administration is also proposing extending the disclosure rules to health insurers.

Interesting. I wonder what that (1% revenue) is in terms of percentage of profit. I would've gone after the insurance industry long before I touched the hospital's bottom line - my grandmother comes to the US, whenever she has an operation, for a reason. That reason is that the money is here, the technology is here, and the best doctors from around the world often end up immigrating here.

But at the same time, plenty of Americans can't afford a basic checkup.

Ideally, we preserve the incentive for the medical and technology communities to come here (money) while reducing the immediate monetary burden on everyday consumers that need to access that healthcare.

The obvious middle-men are the insurance companies. Then again, this isn't a single-variable equation.