This is the moment you're at a distinct disadvantage—and you feel the lack of confidence. We all laughed at Jack on the screen—remember when he turned around to take that walk down the hall???!!! If you've ever been in this predicament in the real world, and you even have to stand up momentarily, you instinctively try to get a solid wall behind you—anything at all so you don't feel so...so helpless.

This is the worst possible time to negotiate ANYTHING. You've already lost—they won. In fact, you don't even know the price, but you (or a loved one) have already signed for it, whatever amount it turns out to be.

The point is, the time to put our best foot forward and get our ducks in a row is ON THE FRONT END, before we commit ourselves. The open-backed hospital gown is an apt metaphor for the notion of being totally unprepared and unequipped to deal with anything of consequence in our lives. We all work very hard to be the exact opposite—in nearly EVERY commercial enterprise or transaction. We all want to know what value we're getting for our hard-earned bucks, and that we're at least ONE of the wins in the "win-win."

So why aren't we doing that in a full 1/6 of the American economy? People who are experts—who spend their valuable time studying the Healthcare sector—tell us that it's presicely BECAUSE we're insured.

But are you...insured? There's that big deduction from every paycheck, that's for sure. Look at the next stub, and calculate times 1.5, because we're about 2/3 the way to the end of the year. If you dare, ask your HR department what amount they're paying on your behalf, seeing as that's probably where your raises and cost-of-living bumps have gone over the past several years. Health insurance premiums rise at roughly 5-7 times the annual rate of inflation. At many, many businesses, the company is shouldering an even bigger load than us.

Even if we can't negotiate while we're being wheeled into the emergency entrance on a gurney, we certainly can start to ask our primary care physician—and specialists—some reasonable questions up front:

1) Is there a list of imaging providers for my CT-Scan that I can call—for pricing info?

2) Will everyone at the outpatient surgery center surgery (i.e. the anesthegiologist) be IN MY NETWORK?

3) Does your in-house Physical Therapist cost about the same, or much more than an independent P/T center?

Starting out in Part II of her dissection of the current state of the Healthcare economy, "An American Sickness" Elisabeth Rosenthal catalogues several such constructive steps we can all make to "take back our Healthcare" meaning we can and should demand, like we do with ANY OTHER part of the economy, to know what we're being asked to pay for the services rendered before we commit.

When you have an "event" and even if it's garden-variety (MRI, CT-Scan, ligament damage/surgery, etc.) you'll find out that those BIG premiums are now only covering the really big, catastrophic events you hope never happen. All the fairly routine claims fall under your annual deductible.

And almost none of us are asking "what's the breakdown" in advance.

Know the Cost of Healthcare BEFORE You Go In!

DOC$ is designed to take YOUR medical purchase report, and millions of others, to create a first-ever comparison tool for Healthcare shoppers. Please Register, check it out, and add to our growing collection of price knowledge. The video below will give you a quick glimpse at how it all works. Thanks!