How much should a surgery cost? $2,000? $900? $17,000? It’s difficult for a regular person to know and we typically don’t ask. Medical lenders can potentially exploit the bad assumptions people make.

Of course, if you are staying in a hotel and getting surgery, do you really think that’s just free? Of course not. So to some extent people should realize they’re getting stuff they will eventually pay for. But if the lenders and the patients are both avoiding clear costs and prices, then neither side is fully in the right.

Maybe if medical care were more susceptible to up-front prices, like buying a car, boat or house, then issues like this would happen less happen. If the lender just said “we have the right to lien up to $30,000 for these costs, plus any overages you specifically authorize” then it’d be hard for the patients to cry foul. Because the lending itself is not immoral, it just lends itself to abuse.

The article doesn’t really address the main question: what if the litigation industry is fraudulently beefing up claims to extort money from device-makers, thus inflating medical costs? I mean, the article more or less accuses medical lenders of fraudulent tactics to rip off low-income patients – why would the same industry not have people willing to lie to rip off medical corporations?