[ryathal]

There's not a market for healthcare in America though, at least not accessible to the average person. There is a market for Companies and insurance providers, insurance providers and doctors, but essentially nothing for a person and a doctor. It's practically impossible to actually shop for most medical procedures, by price, service quality, outcome, or any other potential metric. It's a little better for prescription drugs as different companies offer different sets of discounted drugs, but consolidation has hurt that too. Using prescription coverage, the patient is once again far removed from any actual market.

[nradov]

Every major health plan now has an online price comparison tool that makes it easy for members to shop for elective medical treatments by price. Have you tried the one offered by your insurer?

https://www.cms.gov/healthplan-price-transparency/consumers

Service quality and outcomes are almost impossible to assess in a way that would be useful to consumers. Like if you see that a heart surgeon has a high rate of patient deaths then that could mean he's a quack, or it could mean he's extremely skilled and takes on the hardest cases that other surgeons won't even attempt. One thing consumers can do is check state public records for disciplinary actions.

[dsr_]

Nothing a heart surgeon does is "elective". Nearly nothing "elective" is ever covered at all by insurance.

[nradov]

You appear to have confused elective with cosmetic. Most non-emergency procedures (including most heart surgeries) are classified as elective. There is some flexibility in choosing a provider and scheduling. These procedures are covered by insurance.