If you think all we need to do in healthcare is let people shop for prices and they will fall, is ridiculous The number of hospitals and insurance comps walking away from each other, particularly for Med Adv, tell us everything That the entire HC system is designed to make it IMPOSSIBLE to price shop Hospitals don't know their costs and can't set prices to insurance companies  Insurance companies do their best to manipulate transactions (latelq, underpay, deny, etc)  All of MA is an attempt by the carriers at arbitrage   They bet that they can break the law, and never adhere to reporting regs  and the worse that can happen is they might get fined   They bet that hospitals don't know their margins or profits on a per plan or carrier basis and they will make stupid decisions  That is starting to change   Now they are using AI to manipulate prices and costs in real time, knowing providers use consultants for Rev mgt, making them unable to respond in months, let alone real time They bet that by gaming MLR with subsidiaries, they can further break the law and not get caught  Bottom line , it's not an efficient market , due to zero transparency at the transaction level ,and the concept that individuals can shop based on price , when neither hospitals or insurance companies know what their actual costs and prices are , is insane  Carriers manipulate and obfuscate every number they can with the goal of making it impossible to know actual prices Good luck shopping for prices on all bu the simplest, most obvious services