A lot of the problem is because hospitals are allowed to use cost accounting systems to simply make up the cost of a service. Doesn't matter what the going rate is or what their insurance contracts will actually pay. AND if you are un- or under-insured, that is the price they say you owe. For example, you can get an MRI at a local imaging center for ~$350 + the cost of a doctor in Bangladesh to read it. At Bridgeport hospital, they bill you $5,000!!! + the foreign doctor at $3,000. Two aspirin = $10 and paper slippers are $15 per day.
This is actually how the Dems justified Obamacare. They claimed the hospitals were loosing tons of money. Hospitals were never loosing more then $350 but they claimed they were loosing $5,000 and that's what the bill was supposed to "fix".