Why do we need Medicare at all?

[inthewind21]

3. Hospitals

Do that to see fish for how much they can get. Example, we see what your medicare paid, however, Blue Cross may have paid the full amount or somewhere close where United Health Care may only pay 50% of what was billed and so on. Depends on what was "negotiated".

Example, I had back surgery in 2018. I went out of network so my insurance (Blue Cross) only paid 50%. I was told the surgery would be 28K. I paid my part up front before the surgery. Imagine my surprise when the facility billed my insurance 70K! When I asked them why that was done, response was "We bill that way because some insurance will pay more then others so we can make up for the insurance that doesn't." On top of my payment upfront payment they collected a little over 39K from my insurance, 11K more than what the entire bill was supposed to be.