Medical Costs Hidden : Free Markets Open the Doors

There is a reason why prices are hidden from consumers and especially now with ObamaCare coming on line, it isn't in there best interest to advertise costs if they are the only ones that will be available to the customers.

Case in point, when asking a health care provider why the cost of a doctor's assistant on a bill was the same as that of the doctor, the health care provider didn't know why. When asked for a itemized list of costs of procedures, they said they couldn't do that.

If the system was open to free market rules and therefore competition, then it would make sense to the health care industry and the customers to know what the cost of each procedure will be. Consumers will seek out the best cost and the best health care provider for their hard earned dollars.

Free markets work - government intervention is always a failure.

What Does Medical Care Actually Cost?
Source: Jonnelle Marte, "What Your Medical Care Really Costs," MarketWatch, April 28, 2014.

May 1, 2014

Consumers who try to understand their medical costs will find it difficult, reports MarketWatch.
A hospital bill is a confusing document, full of coded charges that are not always covered by insurance. Patients who try to shop around for care have trouble actually determining what the best deal is because pricing data is often unavailable, and what is available varies depending upon the insurance company and health care provider at issue.

Some insurance companies have tried to get this type of information to patients.

• UnitedHealth Group offers customers a cost estimator to give them a sense of the medical costs that they could face, depending upon the hospital or medical provider.
• A knee replacement surgery in New York, for example, could range from $28,536 to $74,010.

With the rise of high deductible plans, more patients are trying to figure out the cost variations of different health care providers.

• When an insurance company issues its explanation of benefits form, a patient will see several different price tags for the same service.
• A hospital's charge is generally different from the amount paid by the insurance company, which is different from the amount owed by the patient.
• Little is understood about how a hospital sets its fees, and the rates paid by insurance companies vary widely depending upon the company.
• The consumer is left to shoulder the rest of the costs, which is why more Americans are becoming price conscious.

Healthcare Bluebook, a startup company, has tried to enter this market. It allows people to access the rates that their insurance company has negotiated for a particular service at one health care provider versus another, and it provides patients with a "fair price" estimate for each service.