Patients Need to be Able to Use Price Transparency

The American healthcare system is anything but simple, yet one thing is clear: lack of transparency will only enable large health provider networks to stay shrouded in crony pricing practices. Make no mistake, transparency is absolutely essential, but the impact of it hinges on what patients do with information that becomes available to them.

The opaqueness in healthcare pricing is simply out of control. We are living in a nation where hospitals can charge $60 per ibuprofen tablet and $21,000 for cesarean sections. Unless challenged, states like Texas will continue experiencing 6% annual increases in health care spending and be set on a trajectory of compensatory tax hikes which will ultimately further burden us, the patients.

Read the full commentary at America’s Future.