America's medical system is so unnecessarily complex and confusing that you can get a master's degree in medical billing. One of the major problems with this Frankenstein's monster of a system is that patients often have no idea what they're paying for services.

You'd think that one of the advantages to having a private healthcare system would be the ability to make decisions based on price, as we do with everything else. But it never really seems to work that way.

In fact, about one in five visits to an in-network emergency room results in a "surprise" out-of-network bill that can drive up the cost by thousands. These bills happen when an out-of-network provider is unexpectedly involved in a patient's care.

(It's unexpected for the patient, but as you'll see, not for the hospital in many cases.)

These out-of-network doctors then ask for large fees that aren't covered by insurance.