The admirable candor with which medical personnel have learned to speak about difficult topics concerning our bodies and our care did not extend to the costs involved. The question of what the procedure would cost, gently broached, initially baffled the staff, eliciting answer-deflecting counter-questions about the adequacy of our insurance coverage, but resulted in no quotes or estimates.
The complete lack of buyer-seller interaction and competition is what makes health care so expensive. And it's corrupting the system, too. Hospitals charge inflated prices and insurance companies present negotiated reductions as "benefits."
