As I have written previously, the most serious threat to the medical price transparency initiative is an endorsement by the government.  Here it is.

Mandating transparent pricing in health care will simply provide the legislator the opportunity to sell exemptions to this requirement.  It will also provide an opportunity to “redefine” transparency such that it means nothing at all or applies only to a few areas, what my friend Jay Kempton calls “opaque transparency.” 

Just as you can know that nothing for certain is true until the government’s issuance of an official denial (a favorite quote of Lew Rockwell’s), the cause of death of many great private ideas is the sanction of the state.  Left alone, individuals will act in the health care market arena, seeking value (actually demanding value), sending the signals entrepreneurs require, to bring us what we need and in the most efficient way possible.

G. Keith Smith, M.D.