[zests]

> Trump Administration Announces Historic Price Transparency Requirements to Increase Competition and Lower Healthcare Costs for All Americans

> President Trump Signs “Most Favored Nation Price” Executive Order on Drug Pricing

Here are two headlines I offer without comment that can be searched with your favorite search engine for more information.

[xg15]

I get this [1] when googling.

Fair enough. More transparency is certainly a worthwhile goal, however, this rests on the basic assumption that a consumer always has the opportunity to make a rational choice between different alternative products or services (drugs, medical procedures, etc).

From what I've read, I doubt this is the problem in practice. Are you going to compare prices during a medical emergency? If your doctor tells you that you need an X-ray, will you stop him and check the nearby hospitals whether their X-rays are cheaper? How useful is price transparency if your essential medication is only made by a single company that can do arbitrary price hikes? What do you do if the "market rate" for some essential operation is still more than you can afford?

[1] https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2019/11/15/trump-administrati...

[bergstromm466]

> Here are two headlines I offer without comment that can be searched with your favorite search engine for more information.

Headlines are not arguments...

[zests]

I didn't realize we were arguing.

[bergstromm466]

A proposal can be an argument.

"Legal Definition of argument. 1: a reason or the reasoning given for or against a matter under discussion — compare evidence, proof. 2: the act or process of arguing, reasoning, or discussing especially: oral argument."