Why don’t doctors compete on the open market, advertise prices, etc? Why don’t doctors tell you what tests, procedures, etc. cost before you agree to them?
There is no “open market”....government pays for 70% of healthcare. And there are dozens of prices for each service/procedure...the “retail”/cash payer price the Medicare price (usually about 20% of retail), the Medicaid price (even less than Medicare), the Blue Shield price, the Aetna price, the United Healthcare price, etc., etc. etc.. The privately insured pay extra to cover the reduced payments from the 70% of billing paid by the govt..