High and Erratic Prices

Another shard of our broken health care system: high and erratic prices from doctors and hospitals.

“It’s the wild, wild West when it comes to prices of anything in the U.S.
health care system, whether for a doctor visit or for hospital charges,” said Jonathan S. Skinner,
a health economist at Dartmouth.

The situation is so irrational, said Uwe
E. Reinhardt, a health economist at Princeton, that it simply cannot go on.
“We will not emerge out of this decade with this lunacy,” Dr. Reinhardt said,
adding, “You worry about credit card charges, you scream for consumer protection
— why not scream for it here?”