Even if they are willing to give you a discount if you don’t have insurance, those ibuprofen pills are still going to be charged 10x or 100x over their cost. Health industry knows nobody can shop around and get quotes and regulators are unwilling to protect patients. It’s no wonder we are in the mess we are in.

My locality has a ballot initiative up this year that would put a % cap on what hospitals can charge over their costs, and boy oh boy are the industry mouthpieces out in force to oppose it! They are having a field day with patients’ wallets, they know it, and they don’t want it to end.