What percentage of Americans are without health insurance? According to Kaiser Health News (KHN), the US Census figures for all of 2018 show 8.5% of the population is uninsured. That means between Medicare, Medicaid, the VA, and private insurance, 91.5% of all of us ARE insured. Survey after survey continue to indicate that most privately insured Americans are "happy" with their coverage.

But a closer look reveals some real concern. Not like there's any ambiguity about peoples' apprehensions; polling skepticism aside, the graph to the right from HealthPocket.com is difficult to quibble with. 85% of respondents are nervous about the price of healthcare, which it bears reminding ourselves we're paying thousands per year—through our employer-sponsored plans—to "insure" ourselves against.

As we've reported here, today's high deductible landscape exposes us all to medical-billing landmines in every direction (Yes, I did it, I used "landscape" and "landmines"...couldn't resist!).

Your doctor sends you out to a CT-Scan for price-unknown ($$$???); or your specialist introduces you to the airline-pilot-like-focused [out-of-network] anesthesiologist right before you go nighty-night for your outpatient surgery; or there's the nickel-and-dime torture of inflated P/T charges for your daughter's soccer-related knee hyper-extension.

So it's no wonder that the same survey finds over 50% of us have "avoided seeking medical care due to..." THE PRICE. Right from the start of the Covid-19 crisis, we were given assurances like, "...don't worry. They're covering everything." But take care where you go for that nasal-swab test; you might very well discover the test location is one of the landmines—after the fact. Astute observers like NYT's Sarah Kliff and KHN's Elisabeth Rosenthal are finding people all over the country are getting unpleasant surprises in the mail after the testing. Oh, and apparently, the testers are afraid of your rugrats!

So Covid-aside, the newest trend in Healthcare is a novel idea known as "Healthcare Price Transparency." In other words, the very mission statement of DOC$. One of our friends, DOCPACE.com (an innovative and timely "virtual waiting room") tagged an article about just this very concept, which we're linking here. The author briefly mentions the Trump administration's new hospital price rules, and nascent congressional initiatives; but to really work for consumers, this new transparency has to come FROM consumers.

As this final graph clearly illustrates, there is overwhelming interest in medical price knowledge at the outset—BEFORE the transaction. Of course! Nobody in their right mind so much as takes a pack of strip-steaks to the register, willing to pay whatever the price will be without knowing it in advance. But Health Insurance...it's the "Ethiopian Prince Scam" that has gone mainstream, and it's bagging us every time.

If there's going to be this "transparency" however, what or where is the convenient repository for all the coming "helpful" medical price information? It's right here at DOC$. Our task is to convince consumers, large employers, and advocacy groups like those for Health Savings Account (HSA) owners, and the AARP, to go to our site and report the prices they are paying, and then search the growing data base for high-value Providers—THEN we'll have both Healthcare Price Transparency, and a place to find it!

Know the Cost of Healthcare BEFORE You Go In!