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October 06, 2005
Revealing Hospital Prices for Health Savings Account customers
Uwe Reinhardt is a Princeton health care economist who was recently heard on NPR attacking Health Savings Accounts. In an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, he is quoted lamenting what might happen if hospitals actually had to reveal their prices to the public. "If prices were not kept secret, there would be more pressure on hospitals to become more efficient and to lower costs. The high-cost hospitals would be out of business.”
That any business in the U.S. - including hospitals - should be able to stay inefficient and still stay in business - overcharging their customers and the tax payers - is just plain wrong. Their is growing pressure for hospitals to reveal their prices, so that people can actually compare prices before buying. They'll go kicking and screaming, but I don't think they'll be able to resist the pressure to come out in the open with their pricing structures.
Posted by Wiley Long at October 6, 2005 03:11 PM