[evoke4908]

> Because insurance would then just lowball the cost of everything.

They do. Many, many billable items are priced to the limit that insurance will pay. Insurance and providers have agreements on the prices they can charge for certain procedures or supplies.

It used to be the norm that insurance would pay their maximum and leave the rest to you. Sometimes the provider would waive the difference, sometimes it was billed to you.

The cost of healthcare is 100% an artefact of insurance price fixing and absolutely nothing else.