We think healthcare costs should be going down, not up. We think people should be able to keep insurance that they had.
As consumers are being asked to pay more of the cost of healthcare services, they will increasingly demand more value and will also ask for more transparency and tools to determine the value they are receiving.
I think health care is a mess. I think that, as a free market person, you can't even have that discussion unless you know what the service costs.
Armed with pricing information, health care consumers can punish providers that price gouge, waste resources, or engage in surprise billing by taking their business elsewhere.
In my book, 'Let Patients Help,' one chapter is titled 'Let patients vote on what's worth the cost.' That's sensible, right? In other industries, consumer preference is a key determinant in prices.
We really do have to get at the underlying question of health-care costs.
The healthcare industry has never had a priority on user experience because there has been little competition. Prices have never been transparent.
Most of us would never consider getting our car repaired without first receiving an estimate of the charges, but this is exactly what we do when we need to go to a hospital for treatment.
Under Obamacare, it virtually is impossible to find out the price of anything. That's not the way to make health care affordable.
Healthcare is the only civil system where new technology makes prices go up instead of down.
