Yeah, except many (most in my area) healthcare providers do not have fixed rates for service, and prices that are offered are often just estimates, with no real recourse if the estimate is off by a wide margin.<p>My wife had elective surgery- I had a high deductible plan at the time with an HSA account. When we asked what the total cost would be, the quote was ~$1100. The total bills that came to us were well over three times that. There is no real recourse for this, we wrote letters, called governing agencies in our area and were nearly sent to collections before I just paid for it.<p>Free market capitalism is far from what we have in almost every service-based industry in my experience, and companies fight tooth and nail to ensure it stays that way.