Improving the Value of Health Care

The rising cost of health care represents the nation's single most important long-term fiscal challenge. This book explores whether increased transparency about prices for specific health care services and pharmaceuticals would help to temper the rapid growth in costs. The answer is unclear because evidence can be gathered to support either side of the issue. Some observers believe that if individuals know the prices of health care services, they are more likely to seek out less expensive providers or treatments and to question how effective the care they are purchasing is likely to be. However, several factors may limit the effectiveness of this type of transparency in cutting health care expenditures. This book examines such potentially substantial inefficiencies in health care and then discusses a few pathways to reducing them.