Imagine if grocery stores had secret pricing that you did not know until you selected which credit card would be used for payment at check out. And the secret prices would vary based on which credit card you used. Your receipt would not list the items you purchased but would show meaningless “FCD-10” codes for each item. Do you think secret grocery prices would lead to higher or lower prices?
Hospitals and insurers contend that disclosing their negotiations would be counterproductive and predict it would have the perverse effect of driving up prices.
Source: New Trump administration rule to make more health care rates public – SFGate
The hospital/insurance cartel argument is in opposition to centuries of economics theory.
