Kollelman
“there is no free market.”
nor can there be. People dont decide to have heart attacks. and when they do happen they cant go bargain hunting.
“An individual almost never has the ability to negotiate”
Its far worse than that. Say a hospital wants $100 for an Xray. The insurance with their bargaining power says ok we will give you $70 take it or lose our patients. The hospital then raises the bill to $150 The insurance company says ok we will give you $100 (which is what the hospital wanted.) Hospital is happy they get what they want , insurance company is happy since they are gettign a bargain
The ones who realy lose are individuals without insurance who are now stuck with a bill for $150 that is more than the hospital even wants.
Insurance for childbirth doesnt realy make sense. Try gettign car insurance and telling the insurance company yo plan on having a car accident r”l every year or few years.
Similarly for preexisting conditions, some of which people are born with. trying buying homeowner’s insurance once a home is on fire