Healthcare costs

In the Feb. 1 article Making sense of Florida House’s free-market healthcare initiative, Michael Auslen accurately points out why this proposal is wishful thinking, to say the least.

It’s ludicrous to expect any ill person to do comparison shopping for urgently needed medical assistance.

Additionally, it’s virtually impossible to get accurate price information by phone anywhere in the medical field. We recall how a poorly insured family member called several hospitals, asking specific costs for a medical test to be paid out of pocket. There wasn’t a single facility giving accurate information. Instead, the dubious answer was always that the exact cost would be specified on a detailed billing statement after the procedure was done.

So much for comparison shopping.

This story was originally published February 6, 2016 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Healthcare costs."