I agree 100%, just that in the scope of price transparency this is not the real price, discounting all other economic effects that are not apparent in prices.

The root cause of those interlocking issues is that US society hasn't decided who should foot the bill for an individual's health care costs.

Putting that burden on the individual is akin to a reverse lottery, where an unlucky few pay are forced to pay obscene bills in order to survive.

Putting that burden on society is "socialism" and is at odds with market economics.

I disagree, I think the interlocking issue is that few industries have as much public support for its vested interests as healthcare and education. Anyone can get away with anything because the public is generally tricked by a simplistic understanding of what medicine is, and consequently support terrible policies.

You could drop the cost of care just de-regulating. But Milton Friedman failed, who would succeed today on that path?

"You could drop the cost of care just de-regulating"

That's a huge oversimplification and isn't true in many cases, for example when a single drug company owns the patent on a life saving drug. The laws of supply and demand are not in favor of those who require that drug to live.

> for example when a single drug company owns the patent on a life saving drug

Patents are a form of regulation. De-regulating would include voiding those patents. The government created that monopoly and all its attendant problems; there is absolutely no reason why it can't remove it just as easily.

Sad, but true. Access, Quality, Cost.

In the USA, at least, there is a singular problem: In the early 70s, the HMO Act and similar legislation was passed, bringing in the HMO-oriented system of healthcare.

A silver bullet would consist of introducing a single-payer system and winding down the HMOs.

HMO's are very successful in terms of providing cost/care solutions. The fact that they are so unpopular reveals the american preference: they want to see any doctor, at any time, with as much access as possible.

Anecdata: A nuclear family member was the president of an HMO for a few years, as far as I know they successfully pooled Medicare resources and made group-wide decisions that saved a lot of money.