Medicare reimburses health care providers according to a schedule of payments. A “Prospective Payment” that is based on the world’s largest and most realistic data set for locally-adjusted health care costs. Some health care providers, private nonprofit and for-profit providers mostly, grouse at the low reimbursement. Why? Because the Prospective Payment schedule does not provide for huge allowances for bloated and unnecessary administrative salaries, marketing, profit, and other costs that have nothing to do with patient care. This is why Medicare for All is so necessary to reduce spiraling health care costs. So how do hospitals and insurance companies determine the cost of services? The answer is the black box known as Chargemaster. See the description Chargemaster here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chargemaster Chargemaster intentionally obscures medical costs for patients and defends as a trade secret the inputs and formulas used to derive these costs. Costs are purposely,