What It Costs Here -- And There

[DeSwiss]

Hospital Prices No Longer Secret As New Data Reveals Bewildering System, Staggering Cost Differences

[aquamarina]

1. I think this is important information

BUT I think there are other issues that should be measured along with cost such as success rate, mortality rate, rate of re-hospitalization, health of the patient, etc. Maybe the hospital that charges only $7k has a higher mortality rate then the hospital that charges $99k. I'm not saying that this is true but I think that more factors should be measured than just cost. Now if they are saying that one hospital charges $100 for surgical scrubs and another only charges $15 for the same set of scrubs or one hospital charges $300 for an MRI and another hospital charges $1500 for the same MRI then I totally share the outrage.

This cost issue feels a little like the "standardized testing" of the healthcare industry to me.

[PDJane]

2. What it says to me is that the US should, like every other industrialized country,

Provide health care for their citizens, instead of letting people be shifted around from state to state or dumped on skid row. Instead of letting people die, the cost should be taken care of by taxes and levies.

This is utter insanity.