Insurance has driven a market where the pricing is opaque. The doctors are trained to req services without concern for money and the billing office reconciles

Insurance has driven a market where the pricing is opaque. The doctors are trained to req services without concern for money and the billing office reconciles it with the insurance bean counters. Imagine choosing doctors like plumbers. Do you go with the one with the low initial exam fee? How about the one your family member recommended? Or the one with good reviews on the internet? Then, when they tell you the plan, do you go to another one and pay their exam fee to find out their plan? I have some experience at this from the veterinary side. Some people do treat us like plumbers. They know there are several points of leverage in the pricing. However, it is a two edged sword. If you decline the plan and renegotiate it, the vet is liable to stop recommending the expensive options because you are more focused on money than health. This happens unconsciously. If you decline a $20 diagnostic after a half hour of haggling I won't have time or energy to try to convince you to spring for a $100 monthly treatment when an inferior but acceptable treatment is available for less. I'll present both options and you will probably choose the inferior one as part of your haggling strategy. Haggling makes lots of sense when the quality of the commodity is not under control of the salesperson, it is easy to determine, and the salesperson pads your price with lots of margin. In medicine, everything is opaque and haggling is rarely able to take a broad cut on price without sacrificing quality.