How much does a C-section Cost? $6,241 Or $60,584

 That's the headline on front page of The Wall Street Journal on Feb. 12, 2021. "The rate the hospital charges depends on the insurance plan covering the birth." The bottom price if for Medicaid recipients and the top price is for women who are insured but whose plans don't include the hospital in question. 

Data on rates that hospital negotiate with insurers is beginning to become available. "The submissions also illuminate how widely prices vary--even for the same procedure, performed in the same facility--depending on who is paying." 

"It is shining a light on the insanity of U.S healthcare pricing" said Niall Brennam chief executive of the Health Care Cost Institute, a nonprofit that analyzes medical costs.

Other cost variation examples: 

Major heart procedure with complex patient: Medicare patient: $89,752; out of network insurers are charged $515,697! That's a spread of $425,945!

Non-cervical spinal fusion ranges from $50,000 to $250,000.

Hip or knee replacement: $15,000 to $75,000. 

Don't you think it is time for a single payer health plan for Americans. No one else in the world has to deal with such insanity.

Thanks to WSJ writers: Anna Wilde Mathews, Tom McGinty, and Melanie Evans.