U.S. taxpayers could save tens of billions of dollars a year if hospitals are compensated amounts closer to their costs for items ranging from bandages to MRI's according to a Feb. 20, 2013 article in Time Magazine by Steven Brill.
(http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-...)
Every hospital has a "Chargemaster", which is a database of prices for products and services. The prices in the chargemaster are marked up, often by 1,000% or more over the hospitals' costs. These overcharges contribute to 60% of personal bankruptcies in America.
The problem is that the hospitals and their suppliers have very strong lobbies in Washington. Apparently, the only way to get Washington's attention to fix this is if citizens fight this on a grass-roots level.