Yeah, I thought the same thing. I absolutely care about prices and transparency.

Wait until op has a baby delivered and sees crap like:

* BP/READ $349

* OR/FOO $2090

* OR/BAR $1000

* OR/BAZ $2090

Not real codes, but they might as well be with the current system...

I have done that and seen all of those. I'm thinking at the systemic level. If everyone had to care about prices, then there would be more demand for transparency, and more competition in pricing, which would help even those who are unable or unwilling to price shop.

I also bring up single-payer in a related way because the need to find in-network providers within reasonable distance often is such a limiting factor that price shopping isn't possible.

With single-payer, one could actually choose between all of the providers... in addition to other benefits.

There are websites like ZocDoc which are like yelp for doctors, but they can only do so much because of the lack of price transparency, and lack of ability of consumers to choose doctors out of network.

Everything in health care is a code, I think there are something like 10,000 different ones in the latest version.

I think perhaps a better way to phrase it is that people aren't able to meaningfully act on price information.

There are some markets where price shopping is possible and does happen. For instance, LASIK prices plummeted as a result of competition and price shopping.

There could be many more, if not for various policies that impede this.

I think LASIK is probably closer to cosmetic surgery than "healthcare", at least as far as most of this discussion is concerned. If your arm is broken you can't really shop around.

It takes like 5 minutes, max, to shop around for a pizza. You can easily pull up prices, reviews, and so on.

If price transparency and quality comparison were made easily accessible, and one could actually choose options regardless of considerations like "in-network," then it would be entirely conceivable that the majority of medical procedures would involve price shopping.

And such shopping around based on price and quality would improve things even for those who do not price shop. Feeling the pressure of market discipline would force providers to compete on quality and price.

There are sites that try to be like yelp for healthcare, but you ultimately don't have any price transparency, not every doctor is listed, and you have to navigate a maze of insurance categories. In a saner world, we would have better transparency in healthcare than pizza delivery.

My employer’s healthcare plan includes Castlight. It’s a mobile app that shows nearby in-network providers. If I need a procedure, I can search for that and get average prices.

Dentistry is also like this. Lots of people have some dental insurance, but it doesn't cover enough of the really costly procedures to make most patients ignore costs.

I think this is it. Imho, you essentially have two populations of patients: those with good enough jobs to have good enough insurance that their fairly price insensitive in most cases, and those who are under-employed and/or under-insured who know going in they can't afford to pay for service regardless. Neither of these groups are particularly invested in effecting change to the status quo. On the flip side, though, there is a large population in the middle where price matters a lot ... but imho these voters are overwhelmed in their PR efforts by the big spenders at the top, and the under-insured are effectively disenfranchised anyway, so their voice doesn't matter much (Medicare/Medicaid & VA services are the exception here).