This won't help consumers. The prices (both charges and what Medicare pays) are already effectively public: https://data.cms.gov/Medicare-Physician-Supplier/Medicare-Pr... The problem, as some other comments point out, is that they're way too complicated. The link I posted, for example, is just the provider charges. A hospital visit typically has a facility claim and at least one provider claim. Depending on the type…
> It's a total mess and hopelessly complex for the average consumer. But not for insurance companies; it's in their interest to compare hospitals and get the best care for the lowest price. I for one hope this will trigger competition. On the other hand, it'll probably end up shafting the personnel instead of the ridiculous profit margins.
The benefit that competition provides to incentivize lower prices and better services is a consumer's ability to easily deny someone their business and go elsewhere.
What would this look like here?
Would one be in the back of an ambulance doing price shopping on a tablet as they are fighting some terrible injury?
Perhaps tie in different billing departments in a conference call as they bid over who will do the critically urgent surgery as the patient slides in and out of consciousness?
Maybe decide to have a heart attack during a winter sale special or reach into their dresser to get a coupon out as they collapse to the floor?
Or would someone be placed on a transportable life support system as they get ferried across a city deal hunting by having different procedures at different institutions, expecting them to talk to each other and string together piecemeal lab results for a coherent diagnosis?
Maybe someone would do the work beforehand, search all the popular ailments and their procedures and then do price shopping in good health and prepare an execution plan if they fall ill?
Maybe there's a non-absurd example, but I honestly can't think of it. The competition mechanism seems to be a completely unrealistic application.