Before you start bitching about medical billing...

...consider this: how much is any given hospital losing by having to treat medicare/medicaid patients whose government supplied insurance is paying about 30-40% of the hospital's costs? 

Costs.  Not profits.  They cut those completely out. 

So hospitals have to overcharge those who pay for themselves, either through cash or through private insurance, so that they can cover their costs and remain open to serve those who need it.  

I don't readily sympathize with pathos-based arguments.  They usually have little to no logos. As for this particular case, well, the couple chose to use a private hospital.  One that does not do charity work--which is what they were able to afford.  The article started with a plea to our emotions, our sympathy, before skimming over that choice, and moving into what the "evil" hospital was doing in its billing. 

More power to them.  I have no problem with people charging what the market will bear.  No one has an unalienable right to force others to provide them with services for less than what that service is worth.  That's indentured servitude at best, and slavery at worst.

And we, all of us, are FUBARed, because Obamacare is going to prevent this, and begin forcing private hospitals out of business.  Not long after that, medical personnel are going to wind up in indentured servitude to the State, which is going to prompt those who would actually be good at it to find something else to do with their lives.