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In the aggregate, the United States spends far more per capita on care services than does any other industrialized nation; but understanding the price a consumer would pay for an individual service or set of services is far more difficult. This lack of health care price transparency presents a serious challenge for consumers, who are increasingly being asked to pay a greater share of their health care costs.
- Reducing health care costs is a key public policy issue, but a complicated one because costs and prices are opaque not only to the public but often to health care providers, purchasers, and payers.
- The need for fully transparent cost and price data will only increase as consumers begin to take a more active role in their health care decisions.
- Some states and communities have access to comprehensive cost and price information; these communities are in position to enact policies and track their effectiveness over time.
Health Policy Snapshot
Two-page briefs providing insight and analysis on key issues affecting health and health care in the United States.
View allUS spent $2.5 tril in 2009, but true price of health care largely unknown