My anecdote of the broken healthcare market

2 min read

At work, I've elected to use a Health Savings Account and high-deductible insurance for our family health coverage. It doesn't particularly save money, but I like the idea that it makes me more conscious of our healthcare spending, and has the potential to accumulate over time.

My wife was recently told she needed an MRI, and was scheduled to get one at an outpatient clinic - the cost: $2,592. I called Tandem Care, an independent service contracted for by the University System of NH, that will do price comparisons for outpatient procedures.

They found an imaging center, closer to our home, where the cost for the same MRI is $430! By rescheduling the procedure for there, we also are given a $300 cash cost-savings reward. In talking to the Tandem representative, I learned that the same procedure can cost as much as $4,500 at a local hospital.

Until people have a vested interest in the money they spend on healthcare, there is little hope that market forces will have a sufficient impact on healthcare costs. In this case, it's my money, not the insurance company's, that would be spent, so I cared enough to shop around for what's a standard procedure.

This was also discussed in length in a recent Planet Money episode - "Pay Patients, Save Money."