A hospital is a business and has to operate like one. That's not necessarily the hospital's fault. They need to make money in order to stay open and make improvements. The big problem are the insurance companies and the medical supply companies.
Medical supply companies charge insane prices because they can. Here's an example. For my graduate research I had to use stem cells that were approved for use in medical research. They were literally the exact same thing as stem cells purchased for none medical research. Mine cost $2200 per vial while the other ones cost less than $200 per vial. Now there more work involved in produce the medically approved stem cells over the others but not $2000 worth. These companies do the exact same thing with hospitals and the hospital has no choice but to buy from them for multiple reasons. The company has a patent on that product, the hospital uses a machine from that company that only works with pruducts from that company, the hospital has a contract with that company, etc.
Now hospitals have to increase their prices dramatically to not only cover the cost of the supplies but to account for the fact that insurance companies always negotiate a lower number.
All of these horror stories you hear about patients receiving a huge bill for something simple are a bit rediculous. There is no way the hospital is expecting you to pay it. They are giving you a bill that is meant for and insurance company. If you actually talk to the hospital it will be lowered a lot. Hospitals also know they can't squeeze water from a stone. They will often settle for payment of less than 20% of the original bill. This is another reason why healthcare is so expensive. They have to account for the money they lose on patients without insurance. They can refuse emergency medical care but they also can't collect money from someone who has no money.
The whole situation is a clusterfuck. As a healthcare worker I can tell you that most of us do everything within our power to reduce the cost to the patient.
This comment ended up being a lot longer than I intended it to be.