Rising healthcare costs lead the headlines. One solution that is commonly touted is to allow patients the freedom to choose. The operating theory is that if the patient is able to compare costs, they will choose the lower cost option.
There are some issues with that theory. In healthcare, cost doesn't always equal quality. If you don't commonly shop for an MRI, it's difficult to know whether the lowest cost provider is actually going to give you the service or quality that you need. There may also be time factors involved. If you have a heart attack or break a leg, chances are you can't do any comparison shopping among various hospitals.
To add even more confusion to the mix, hospitals often bill for everything. While that may seem like an exaggeration to anyone who has had to negotiate with an airline or cable company, it is not. They often offer itemized lists that include charges for individual pills of Tylenol. They might even bill you whether you took the pill or not!
In this thought experiment, Rachel Feierman imagined what would happen if restaurants billed customers like hospitals. It would certainly make you think twice about eating out:
Here are links to the articles explaining how she came up with the images:
No comments:
Post a Comment