Quote Originally Posted by Puckstop31 View Post
Put more responsibility into the hands of the patient. Let everybody see what it REALLY costs. Then people start shopping around, like we did with Tanya's pregnancy. We found AMAZING care for less than half the cost of the "usual" hospital here in town. Competition breeds cost cutting and better service. Lets face it... Healthcare IS a business.

No, its not "easy" to get there. Yes, not everybody will do well in such a system. It will still be better than what we get if government runs it all. Ask my father in law... Ask my brother in law... YEARS waiting for stuff that I could get next week, at worst, here.
They tried that at some of the hospitals in Chicago for awhile but it seems to have fallen out of favor for now. There was a big push to get people to ask about how much this service costs, and to call around and compare prices before (example) their colonoscopy, but I don't know how much it ever caught on.