&gt;How can they do that when no one knows the price until after the work is done?<p>The sad part is that it is even more insane than that.  For most things we buy, we have the ability to either walk away and say no or we have the ability to wait.  For health care, there are many times when the service is an immediate need, so there is rarely an ability to even refuse it (I mean, you could opt for letting a potential problem kill you, but at that point we have basically gutted the meaning of &#x27;need&#x27;).