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There are some markets where price shopping is possible and does happen. For instance, LASIK prices plummeted as a result of competition and price shopping. Th

• delecti 7y ago
  I think LASIK is probably closer to cosmetic surgery than "healthcare", at least as far as most of this discussion is concerned. If your arm is broken you can't really shop around.
  • nwah1 7y ago
    It takes like 5 minutes, max, to shop around for a pizza. You can easily pull up prices, reviews, and so on. If price transparency and quality comparison were made easily accessible, and one could actually choose options regardless of considerations like "in-network," then it would be entirely conceivable that the majority of medical procedures would involve price shopping. And such shopping around based on price and quality would improve things even for those who do not price shop. Feeling the pressure of market discipline would force providers to compete on quality and price. There are sites that try to be like yelp for healthcare, but you ultimately don't have any price transparency, not every doctor is listed, and you have to navigate a maze of insurance categories. In a saner world, we would have better transparency in healthcare than pizza delivery.
    • coredog64 7y ago
      My employer’s healthcare plan includes Castlight. It’s a mobile app that shows nearby in-network providers. If I need a procedure, I can search for that and get average prices.
• jessaustin 7y ago
  Dentistry is also like this. Lots of people have some dental insurance, but it doesn't cover enough of the really costly procedures to make most patients ignore costs.