The hospital Scam?

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Ok so this has been brewing in my mind since the last time I had to see a doctor. What starts out as a simple sickness turns into one hefty bill. Why do we pay $300 for a doctor to come in to see us after waiting HOURS only to find out something we already knew? I knew I was sick when I came into the hospital, I know I will still be sick upon leaving as well. So the only thing this doctor has done for me was scribble a perscription on his little pad of paper and send me on my way. This is worth $300 and 4 hours of my time? If I had known the doctor was going to charge me so much money I would have stayed home with a bowl of chicken soup or found another way to cure myself via the FREE internet. How do hospitals get away with charging so much money without telling you in advance the doctors all have eyes made of diamonds which is why he charges so much to look at me for 5 minutes? I strongly believe they should have some kind of basic pricing chart. Let's see, broken arm? Thats about $45! I'd much rather pay the broken bone fee than $300 for a doctor to tell me my bones are in fact broken and he'll have to charge even more to fix it! Well im no expert and I dont have a medical doctorine but I think I can tell when I have a broken bone. There are just some things we can figure out on our own. You know when you are sick, you know when your bones are poking through your flesh that its time to fix that problem. Why go to the hospital not knowing what that mystery bill is going to be? Personally I have never been to a doctor that has charged me less than $300. Most of the time they dont even know what the issue really is. Why should we get stuck paying for their malpractice insurance just to confirm what we knew 4 hours ago when we came to the hospital? If you walk into a fast food establishment do they make your double burger with cheese and wait till you finish eating before handing you the bill? They certainly dont! If you eat at a dine in restaurant do they bill your insurance to help you pay for the meal? Do they have to confirm you in fact had a cheeseburger and didnt finish your fries? Is it a pre-existing condition to be hungry? The hospital system is the only system in the world that will not give you a price for their services when you walk through that door. And even if they do you have to go head to head with your insurance because they dont feel like paying you back for all your hard earned money you have given them for their 5 cent plastic card. So why do we pay insurance just so we dont have to foot the bill as we walk through the door? Would it not make more sense to just have fixed prices and avoid any insurance hassles by changing the way insurance works and have them give you medical credit instead of medical debt? We pay a good chunk of our hard earned income to recieve coverage from these companies and most of us rarely see a doctor unless its an emergency. Why am I spending $270 a month just so doctors wont turn me away when I go to see them? Why should I be more afraid of my insurance company than the long needle going into my spine? Should hospitals be allowed not to tell you what you are speinding just by walking in through their doors? Is it a fair system? Should insurance companies pick up the tab since thats what you pay them for? Or should we keep on letting the hospital keep us in the dark at their prices just so they can charge our insurance for things we didnt need which they fight you tooth and nail to get out of paying? Im glad I got that off my chest. Now to take care of this $10,000 bill because they couldnt figure out the problem for 3 months...