The United States Healthcare industry follows a straightforward business model:

1. Keep MOST prices secret, or at least unpublished, unknown, and opague.

2. Work with Health Insurers to keep prices under wraps, terming negotiated discounts "Proprietary Information." (Pssst!...That means your insurance company might approve a procedure in advance, but won't be able to tell you what the price is, because either a) they don't know, or b) its, well, "Proprietary info!")

3. Rely on insureds' (HEY! That's US!!!) complacency. "They don't care about prices—they aren't PAYING."

This model is beginning to break down for a couple of glaring reasons:  a) The insurance premiums that underpin this system are rising to an unsustainable level of pain—even though they're quietly deducted from employee paychecks pre-tax; and b) These ever-inflating premiums are failing to provide value due to high out-of-pocket expenses (deductibles, out-of-network and surprise bills, etc.) that make the coverage we buy of little to no value. 

We are in effect paying FULL-COVERAGE rates for what amounts to "catastrophic-only" medical plans. Once again, New York Times reporter Sarah Kliff points out a major failing of our Healthcare economy by comparison:  our "furry friends" are benefitting from price transparency in animal healthcare even as we keep our distance from our own human medical infrastructure. See her article here:  https://rb.gy/grdbcz. Notably, her astute commenters point out how the cash segment of the human healthcare economy (Lasik, cosmetic procedures, etc.) mirror the animal healthcare sector:  openness, price transparency, competition, and high quality and value.

Perhaps when we venture back in, we'll all demand to know the damages on the front end. Perhaps.

Know the Cost of Healthcare Before You Go In! 

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