I've lost count of all the problems I've had with medical billing. I can't understand an argument against public pricing because it seems like a clear win if you believe in free market dynamics or progressive reformation of the health care system. But it seems to me the system is just rotten to the core anyway. It makes even my Libertarian self want single-payer healthcare, but I have no expectation the set of people currently working in the system would do anything but keep it rotten.

In the most recent case I tried to get a written quote for procedures because of past problems. I was given the run-around until all I could get was a verbal quote over the phone. But if that wasn't good enough, my only recourse was to delay getting a suspicious lump examined. I was then charged more than I was quoted, and I was even billed for procedures they didn't do. I actually heard one of the employees say "I added that because I thought he was using insurance". Still - hours of phone calls over several weeks before they would even bill me correctly without adding tests that they had no results from. And even then - more expensive than they told me because the person I was transferred to over the phone was in a different state than the clinic I called in the first place.

Absolutely rotten.