I had to call my health insurer today. The guy who was helping me was very friendly and clearly has been in the job a number of years. While I had him on the phone, out of curiosity I told him about Vixmom's mom's ER bill and asked if he's seen this much. He laughed and said yes and all sorts of other things. He said they fight it and eventually the hospital backs down. He said that the worst are the ambulance companies. Apparently, much of the billing is now done off-shore, even though the companies are US-based.
He also commented that none of the policies being talked about in the political debates will address the stuff he sees daily. That's not surprising. Greed and incompetence will still be around. But I did find his perspective interesting.