Check out this article about some revealing data released this week comparing hospital pricing.
For the first time, the federal government [released] the prices that hospitals charge
for the 100 most common inpatient procedures. Until now, these charges
have been closely held by facilities that see a competitive advantage in
shielding their fees from competitors. What the numbers reveal is a
health-care system with tremendous, seemingly random variation in the
costs of services.
How does such a state of affairs persist? The Post reports:
Experts attribute the disparities to a health system that can set prices
with impunity because consumers rarely see them — and rarely shop for
discounts.
I’d also cite this article to illustrate the ridiculous overcharges that infest our third-party-payer system:
http://reason.com/reasontv/2012/11/15/the-obamacare-revolt-oklahoma-doctors-fi
Hospitals and insurance companies are starting to look a lot like a RICO enterprise.