It's amazing what tiny tidbits of knowledge like the urgent care thing can save you.

Recently when picking up the tab for a relative who went to an out of network hospital I discovered another one. The first was an enormous discount for paying same day (so if you're well off but have bad insurance they just pretend you have mediocre insurance). Combined with the power of saying "Really??? Isn't there anything you can do?" to as many people as possible, $1,600 became $360.

So the lesson is on one of the worst days of your life focus on what really matters: haggling, being an informed consumer, and obscure policies.

I hit my head a while back and had to get about 10 staples. Total cost was only $150 without insurance. This was at Penn Urgent Care in Philadelphia. Our combined anecdotes reveal how useful it would be for customers to be able to shop around.

I got the same procedure at a cash-only walk-in clinic. (Eight stitches, actually -- a chunk of flesh was literally dangling from my finger.) $200.

We will never get control of the insane cost of health care until we force medical facilities to actually compete with each other.

Normal countries do this by imposing price controls, and it works remarkably well to contain costs. Why can't the US do the same?

Unfortunately, central planning stifles innovation. We have the best cutting-edge medical technology in the world for the few who would like it and can afford it. But by eliminating pricing transparency we've also eliminated the incentive to make those technologies cheaper and more accessible to the common man.

You don't need innovation for the usual complaints that you see a primary care physician for - broken arm, throat infection &c. That stuff lends itself to standardization and following of protocols.

Except when your broken arm needs to be reduced or you have an open fracture and you require moderate sedation to have a physician perform those procedures. Not so standardized and not to protocolized.