>The insurer doesn't know what each hospital charges. Yes they do. Providers are already required to make their list prices publicly available, and insurance c

>The insurer doesn't know what each hospital charges. Yes they do. Providers are already required to make their list prices publicly available, and insurance companies have it (they are already available to the general public as well, but they're probably going to be hard to find/understand for a layperson). Many insurance companies already have cost lookup tools specifically for this purpose. Posting the hospital's list price online like the article is talking about is purely for the consumption of the patient. It is not of use to the insurer. >In the perfect world In a perfect world, I'd contest that you wouldn't have to worry about healthcare costs at all, but I digress. >everyone would sit down with the hospital, look at the likely range of costs of a procedure, call the HMO/PPO to check how each outcome would be covered Except you already can do this even without looking at the list prices from a hospital. Your insurance can already tell you exactly how much you will be charged by any provider. They do not need these online 'list prices' to do so.