Wrong. You'll pay several times more out of pocket than an insurance company would pay...
Wrong:
A recent article in the Los Angeles Times reported a CT scan of the abdomen costs about $2,400 for patients insured by Blue Shield of California, while the Los Alamitos (Calif.) Medical Center cash price is only $250... Another local California hospital charges insured patients $415 for blood tests that cost only $95 in cash.
It depends... Many places that offer items and services that have lots of competition will lower their prices in certain circumstances:
1) you pay in full or make arrangements to pay in full at the time of the service. If you wait until after the service is done, you no longer have the opportunity to bargain.
2) you tell them you do not have healthcare. (Filling out all the paperwork and filing it cost a lot of time and effort.) This is not as important as the first.
3) They have competition. It may depend on the area but this includes things like flu shots, MRIs, blood/urine tests; but rarely will it cover hospital stays, ambulance service, or emergency care.
If you look, you will also find many good doctors willing to help out on costs as well. While it seems that there have been many in recent years that became a doctor for financial gain only, there are many that care about their patients. If you have a good one, many will go out of there way to help, especially if you are an established patient with them before you fell on hard times (or lack of insurance.
As for anything that can only be done at a hospital, good luck. A little over 10 years ago, I had surgery. (I decline to elaborate for privacy) I was admitted by 8am, was in a semi-private room by 11 (after the anesthetic wore off) and was released the next day around 3pm. For that 31 hour stay, I was charged $20,000. That only included rental of the OR, my brief stay in recovery, and an overnight stay in a semi-private room. All doctor bills, anesthesiologists, radiologists, etc where not included, and it was a normal semi-private room, I was not in intensive care.
Well, my insurance company denied the initial claim... (even though I pre-approved it with them) and the hospital was sending me many sternly worded requests for the full $20,000. They wanted every dime or else... Finally the insurance company decided that they would pay... For the entire bill, my insurance company paid $800 to the hospital. After the nasty letters from the hospital, I called up the insurance company to verify... They agreed that they miscalculated and sent the hospital an additional $100. All the letters from the hospital stopped.
So, long story short, the hospital wanted $20,000 for rental of the OR and a one night stay and started sending nastygrams, but they accepted $900 from the insurance company as payment in full.