As I said in the post, everyone agrees we have a health care crises and we are all arguing about how to fix it. One of the few things that most Americans agree upon is price transparency. I think it is great that the White House is moving forward in an avenue that can actually garner enough public support to pass. The reality is most measures won't pass because it can't get enough people agreeing that its a good avenue to pursue. In my mind you have to start somewhere, and this is a good place to start.

I get you are one of the 12% that opposes price transparency, and I totally understand your logic and arguments. You are right, when you are passed out and taken to the nearest hospital, you don't get to choose. But even in that case, going to their website to see what the anticipated bill will be for the services rendered will help a lot versus getting a bill for $20,000 in the mail that is full of codes so you have no idea what you are actually being charged for. This is how the providers sneak in extra fees, by making the bills so complicated you can't figure them out.

Most of us utilizing health care services have some kind of scheduled care that isn't a surprise. When I was pregnant, I knew damn good and well that I needed to go to the doctor X times and that I needed to go to a hospital to deliver my baby. That was something that I absolutely would have shopped for had I had the option. I was horrified by all the surprise bills that popped up after he was born. The hospital was in network, but not all the doctors assigned to me were, so I was fighting for over a year to get the insurance to cover these surprise doctor bills that totaled thousands of dollars. It would have nice to have not been blind-sided by these charges.

I also developed a rare kidney disease shortly after the birth of my child. I had to get labs and go to the doctor every month for years. It would have been great to have had the option to shop.

Medicare has its fair share of problems, too. My dad has basic Medicare, and I spend hours upon hours clearing up billing "mistakes" made by assorted practitioners. I can't tell you how many co-pays have disappeared and how many times the co-pays turned out to be much, much higher than we had anticipated. I believe that they make these "mistakes" to pad their bottom lines, knowing that most of these old people are easy targets for overcharging. Also, my understanding from my friend who works in medical billing is that Medicare doesn't pay enough to really cover the practitioners cost, so practitioners make up that loss by overcharging the rest of us.

I'd love to see standardized pricing across the board, and those are other steps in the process that need to be addressed. But just disclosing what the pricing is at all is a good first step.