The 'fake' price is due to the negotiation of reimbursement between major healthcare chains and insurers. The most regulated piece - Medicare - is the only piece where there's fairly transparent pricing.
> Ask an American hospital how much something costs - you will get a completely fake price back
You think the government tells hospitals to lie to you? The hospitals lie because the government doesn't force them not to. Laissez-faire capitalism causes that. Regulation is needed to fix it.
I need you to help me connect the dots, because a bare URL is not the same thing as communication. What does the airline deregulation act have to do with hospitals giving you fake prices because nobody forces them not to?
What do you think would force hospitals to give you real prices if not the law?
A) can probably only be fixed with regulation. Why would hospitals and insurance otherwise make prices transparent? The current state serves them really well.
Because in a fair market they would be competed away - prices of food, computers, bonds, etc are not transparent because of regulation - it's largely because of the tax incentive as far as I've read from healthcare economists.