Why price transparency didn't make healthcare cheaper: the ACA, chargemasters, and the Veblen effect

Podcast: Cut & Tell · Hippocratic Collective

Opublikowano: 2026-10-29

Why hasn’t showing patients prices made healthcare cheaper? For more than a decade, policymakers bet that price transparency would let patients shop around and push costs down. Liz looks at what actually happened, from the ACA’s vague “standard charges” language to chargemasters, hospital price tools, and the No Surprises Act. She also shares what she’s learned setting prices as a first-year aesthetic surgeon, including why cheaper can look worse to patients. Her conclusion: if we want real transparency, it has to come from health insurers. Rate, review, and subscribe, and find more shows at the Hippoc...