Fair enough. I guess part of the appeal of having published prices is what other people could then do with them, too. Not just that I could shop around for ro

Fair enough. I guess part of the appeal of having published prices is what other people could then do with them, too. Not just that I could shop around for rotator cuff surgery or a hip replacement, but actually interesting stuff that's only done internally right now. If prices were published then someone could track the prices of a great many procedures and look for procedures that were getting cheaper. You could then interview people at institutions that are able to do those procedures less expensively and publish it. Other institutions might then follow suit and the savings could be shared widely. The lessons might cross boundaries and spark other folks to recognize that X is very similar to Y and they can use the same lessons to make Y cheaper, easier, more foolproof, etc. Further, with reasonable pricing information and some measure of quality it would be pretty easy for people (and perhaps insurance companies) to encourage medical tourism of a great many varieties. Maybe the country doctor or dentist is very skilled but wanted the country lifestyle and doesn't want to drive 2 hours a day to the city. But perhaps city folks would be happy to drive to the country to enjoy a cheaper procedure, hospital stay, etc versus in the city. Right now this kind of arbitrage isn't possible again because prices aren't disseminated widely. Finally when we're talking about human lives which we think are intrinsically valuable and arguably priceless, then I'm not sure that "almost always does not" doesn't mean that something isn't valuable. Young people with families buy life insurance against something which "almost always does not" happen, namely their premature death and yet nobody argues that life insurance shouldn't be allowed. Similarly for any one individual wearing a seatbelt "almost always does not" do them any good since car accident rates are very low, at least on a percentage basis. http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2011/07/27/how-many-times-will-you-crash-your-car/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2011/07/27/how-many...