An expensive birthday present!

Recently, I gained access to the bill I generated following my 14 hour stay at the ICU of a major cardio-vascular unit in Salt Lake City, around New Year’s eve and my birthday. 

While my copay was just $360, the total bill amounted to $28,037 that was negotiated down to $8,704 by my insurance. 

This means that if I had no insurance, I would be liable for the full, non-negotiated amount just under $30,000, which seems to sound like highway robbery compared to an actual “street price” just 31% of that. 

So, I’m asking myself, “what gives?” and if everyone gets paid for the work they did, the hospital room and the drug or tests they performed on me, where would the remaining 70% go if I wasn’t insured? 

Just profit for the hospital, that would then sell the bill to a collection agency should the patient be unable to pay it? 

At any rate, the optics are bad as that huge amount doesn’t look any good on the paper my bill was printed on…