Would you keep a mental record of every service at hospitals? Seems like a gigantic waste of effort for everyone to have to know that a bone fracture is cheapest at hospital A, but C is best for head injuries.
Unless of course you aren't conscious enough to direct the ambulance driver at all.
> Seems like a gigantic waste of effort for everyone to have to know that a bone fracture is cheapest at hospital A, but C is best for head injuries.
Imagine a world where prices are openly advertised, and as a result they start to drop.
Take laser eye surgery as an example. Prices are insanely competitive! They have been going down for years, and equipment manufacturers have been hard at work making more reliable and cheaper to operate equipment that has less side effects!
We have a free market for literally curing blindness and it works really well.
Now take more urgent but not life threatening cases. Last couple times I broke something, it was of the "well that sucks and it is kind of swollen but whatever" type, and I got to choose where to get an X-Ray at.
That is a perfect case where open pricing would drive the market price down and save me money.
As another example, physical therapy prices are often advertised on the open market. So are therapeutic massage prices. Both are price competitive markets.
Sure life threatening emergencies will still be subject to price gouging, but if the entire medical system is running more efficiently then even emergency services may see a reduction in costs in places. Maybe not for the trauma center, but for the hospital stay outside the ICU, why not?
They’re really not very competitive. In my experience there were discounts offered to people with mild myopia to get them in. People who need glasses to drive or see a blackboard pay more. People with large pupils pay much more. I think it’s likely the prices are suggested and discounted by the machine manufacturers who own patents.
The nominal price of Lasik is trending slightly down at the same time that the technology and procedure is getting better. It's a pretty stark contrast to most of the rest of the medical industry, IMO.
Unless of course you aren't conscious enough to direct the ambulance driver at all.