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Emergency room costs are less than 10% of the total in the US. A popular, credible figure is 2%. In any case it's less than 100%. And even if it were 100%, wou
by repsilat 9y ago
Emergency room costs are less than 10% of the total in the US. A popular, credible figure is 2%.
In any case it's less than 100%. And even if it were 100%, wouldn't transparency provide substantial, concrete benefits?
Really, I'm not sure how "some customers won't shop around" works as an argument against public knowledge of price and quality.
- darkerside 9y agoNot an argument against, just an observation that it's unlikely to be part of a realistic solution to the problems we face in healthcare. Interesting point about emergency care costs. Do you have a source you could share?
- repsilat 9y agoLate reply, sorry, and an old third-hand source: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct/28/nick-gillespie/does-emergency-care-account-just-2-percent-all-hea/ http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct/... I figure "it can't hurt, there is a significant market failure, and price transparency can only help." I'd like to hear someone knowledgeable provide a counterargument, though. Maybe it would be expensive or impossible to enumerate those costs. Maybe preferential ("discriminatory") pricing is really important to the smooth functioning of the system.
- darkerside 9y agoThanks for sharing. Looks like anywhere from 2-10% could be reasonable. Even if it's 2%, that's almost $50B a year. There isn't just one problem in healthcare; we'll need to solve multiple problems. FTR, I think my original post did have several points that pertained to nonemergency care as well.