The disruptive innovation of price transparency in health care.

Until very recently,healthcare in theUnitedStateswas deliveredbehind the securewalls of a fortress that kept informationonthepriceschargedforhealthcareandthe quality of that care opaque from public view. Over time, enormousandever-increasing amounts of money have disappeared behind the fortress walls. Much good undoubtedly was done for patients entering the castle in search of succor. But it has been nearly impossible for prospective patients thinking of entering the health care system to knowwhat they or someone elsewill have to give up in return forwhatever care they will receive from the inhabitants of the fortress. In recent years, theUSpublic hasbeenmadeaware through decades of cross-national research and by the media thatUShealthspendingpercapita is roughly twice as high as it is inmost other developed nations, in comparable international purchasing-power parity dollars, even though the American population on average is much younger than those of, for example, most European nations. Thebulkof that spendingdifferential cannotbeexplained by the relatively higher use of health care per capita in the United States. In terms of real health care resources consumed per capita, many other countries