[refurb]

Healthcare in the US is incredibly regulated already. And one reason for the wacky pricing is bad regulation. Well, regulation with good intentions and bad outcomes.

For example, there is a law that all hospitals need to maintain a chargemaster list and that no customer can be charged more than the price listed. Sounds great!

Well, because hospitals are allowed to negotiate discounts, the most rationale thing to do is make your chargemaster price so high that it will never impact your business.

Have a procedure you charge $1,000 for typically? Make the chargemaster price $10,000. That way it will give you some room to up your price to customers (say double it to $2,000). Problem solved for the hospital!

So the regulation solved nothing and actually incentivized negative behavior.

[mancerayder]

Couldn't you argue that's not over, but under-regulation? The problem is, as you said, "make your chargemaster price so high." Such things are not allowed in many countries with national insurance options. Why not? Simple: because governments are paying, and governments can negotiate the prices or simply enact laws or regulatory bodies that determine the fair price of procedures, and especially, drugs.

[refurb]

You could argue it's the wrong kind of regulation, but at least in terms of level of regulation, I'm not sure I'll describe it as less.