The working poor and medical health insurance.

I have just read an article regarding health care costs for individuals in this nation. It seems the cost of health care rises while benefits decline and more and more insurance companies are covering less and charging more. While employers shift the burden of health care costs to their employees it is getting tougher and tougher for some. The article suggests ways to help mitigate the cost of health care.

What does your stay in the hospital really cost?

I recently read an article about the cost of hospitals stays in and around the east coast a noted economist wanted to find out what a simple procedure would cost so he called a hand full of hospitals and found the same opsticals over and over again. No one could tell him what he would pay for a simple procedure. It seemed to him that all the inefficiencies in the system kept the hospitals from giving him the answer he was looking for. My question is would level pricing across the board and standards for pricing of all things health related help or hurt us.