The self- pay price of a procedure is usually about a third of the billed price to insurance for the same procedure. If you read your statements, the billed price is usually never paid as the insurance companies negotiate a lower rate with each hospital system, but the Hospital bills the astronomical rate so their end result will be higher percentage-wise. I paid 350 self pay price for an 850 CT scan. (or was that an MRI, I forgot)
Many times self pay is way cheaper than inflated insurance premiums and huge (10,000) deductibles. What's wrong with cash? I have medicare now, but If I didn't I would only buy a catastrophic policy and keep the premiums as low as possible. Like Glad said, it's all a total scam. The hospitals are awash in printed money. I used to believe that someone who didn't pay was taking something away from me who was footing the bill, but now I know that's what the government wants you to think to pit you against and be in contention with your neighbor instead of the zionist monsters orchestrating this intentionally.. Like when Bill Gates said " Should we pay a million dollars in healthcare for the last year of a person's life, or pay for 10 teachers instead?"- Manufactured socially engineered bullshit