re: Study: significant increase in patients who can't afford to pay full hospital bill

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Because the original concept is bullshite.

It's itemized because insurance companies demand it. You tell them what it cost you and they say "meh, we'll give you this for it"

Saying flurp durp ibuprofen $10/pill?!!? is indicative of ignorance of the system and a basic concept of needing to pay for overhead.

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I don't get how calling out such convolutedness can be seen as "fluff durp" ignorance. I didn't say I didn't recognize the stupid game. That doesn't make the game any less stupid, though. And still doesn't make your attempted analogy any good.

Hospital bills are itemized now because they weren't about 30 years ago and about 2/3s of the shite on the bill then we're for services and products never received.

They aren't actually itemized now because there is no line item detailing how much of your bill is going toward paying for the uninsured and the underinsured who are treated and can't or won't pay. Of course putting more people in that category is the GOP plan in a nutshell.

The root cause of the problem is tying health insurance to employment. Few people have any idea what their insurance is costing because all they see is the deduction taken out of their check. They don't realize the employers portion is coming out of their pocket just like WC and unemployment insurance.

This leads us to accep a situation where we are completely detached from what we are paying for healthcare.....because a detached third party actually pays the bulk of the bill. If gas stations worked that way gas would cost $6 a gallon.