Even getting lab work done is ridiculous. There isn't any discretion, risk, variability or uncertainty involved. A cholesterol test is a cholesterol test. I needed a bunch of tests a while back and pay for them myself. The labs don't put their prices online - you have to call. And then you have to talk to multiple departments because they just aren't setup to tell you pricing and require fragments of information from other departments. Astonishingly I did eventually find somewhere that posted prices, and they turned out to be a quarter of what would have been charged from the regular lab.

I wrote more about it here https://plus.google.com/110166527124367568225/posts/eiThZXx7...

If this topic is at all interesting to you, you should read Steven Brill's dissertation in TIME titled "Better Pill" from a few months ago. Since TIME has a paywall, here is a link to the PDF of the article:

http://livingwithmcl.com/BitterPill.pdf

yes. that's an amazing piece of research. this article really opened my eyes. after studying that article it's much clearer how healthcare can and should be reformed.