Unfortunately it’s not a myth. In fact, it’s a lot worse than the one small example phritzg pointed out.
Those of you who have, perhaps, had continuous and uninterrupted insurance coverage over the past twenty or more years, and who haven’t been seriously ill over the past six to eight years, might not realize the accelerated depth of charging models that hospitals now use, and that their profitability is now in excess of big oil and Hollywood combined.
But don’t take my word for it. Here’s a good article from Time magazine by Steven Brill that goes into the numbers. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2136864,00.html
Looks like the article is no longer free at Time.com, sorry about that. Here’s a link to a .pdf version: http://livingwithmcl.com/BitterPill.pdf