It shocks me that this isn't criminal. I can't think of any other good/service where we accept this sort of thing. It also really exposes the extreme arbitrary nature of healthcare pricing.
The thing is, you could figure out how much an x-ray costs. You just have amortize the cost of the machine, consumables, technicians, and radiologists over the number of images taken. The data is sitting there at every hospital, just spread out across departments. The thing is, gathering that data and calculating these numbers requires a nontrivial amount of effort, and if all you care about is if your bottom is going up or down, then what’s the point?
