Related to this, I was listening to an NPR program recently that tackled the question: If your pet's doctor can give you a list of pricing options before you decide on treatment, why can't your own doctor do that for you?

The answer was that our doctors are disconnected from the costs of treatment because they can't be expected to know every possible charge for every different insurance plan (what the patient would have to pay for procedures, medicine, support staff [anesthesiologists who are out of network, for example], devices [pacemakers, wrist splints, artificial hips, etc.], lab fees, etc.). So why not something that can bring that information to them?

This would be a benefit not just to consumers but to insurance companies as well, and that's where the money would be.

Feel free to cut me in on the action.