Hospital pricing shouldn’t be a guessing game

When you eat at a restaurant, typically you can see the price of each meal on the menu. If you buy a new couch, the price tag is prominently displayed on the showroom floor. When you go to buy a car, you see a price on the sticker, although there may be some room for haggling. But when it comes to buying health care, we have no idea what we are expected to pay. There is no menu board of pricing when you go in with a sore throat or a broken arm. After your treatment, you don’t leave with a receipt as you do for nearly every other purchase you make. And unlike buying a car, you can’t decide what options you want. Things get further muddied when insurance is involved. You have no idea until well after the fact how much insurance is going to cover, and how much of the bill you have to foot. We don’t buy anything else this way. Why is this the acceptable way to buy health care? Why should we have to guess how much a trip to the doctor will actually cost us? Why can’t hospitals be like a fast-food restaurant, and list their prices prominently before you decide if you want to place an order? Consumers are simply in the dark when they seek medical treatment, and it shouldn’t be this way. Hospitals and doctor’s offices should have to disclose the costs of every suture, every pill, every piece of gauze before we ever have to open up and say “Ahhh.”