Surgery Center of Oklahoma: First and Only Free Market Hospital in America

I saw this recent video about the Surgery Center of Oklahoma which may be in fact the only free market hospital in America if not the world. I blogged about the hospital in this post.  What is interesting is that the hospital actually posts prices for surgeries. What I found interesting was the hospital also published infection rates which I don’t see regular hospitals do. In the investment industry fund managers post data like risk, return, and other important data. Why don’t hospitals, physicians and surgeons do the same? As long as the insurance company is picking up the bill do patients really have that much incentive to care? By the way the Surgery Center of Oklahoma has a lower infection rate of a mere .001% which is much lower than the national average of 2.6%. Hospitals hire administers which can be in the six figure range and really just handle paperwork. I am amazed when I go to a doctor why they ask me the same questions (even after I have been to the same doctor for years). Never mind the fact that there is a staff just talking to insurance companies and filling out paperwork. Is this really making us better off? I would say no. Healthcare is not run like a business. What we need is more hospitals like Surgery Center of Oklahoma which don’t take insurance and inform patients of what the prices are. If you had more hospitals like this they would have to compete not only on price but also quality as well. This would be great for patients and lead to some advancements as doctors would try new things to improve care and reduce the risk for the patient. I notice we don’t need an Affordable Food Care Act, Affordable Computer Care Act, or Affordable Video Game Act. Food, computers, and video games operate in a free market where competition increases quality and lowers prices. Healthcare is not a free market by any means. Can you think of any think the government provides that is of higher quality and cheaper than the private sector? Economist Dr. Walter E. Williams summed it up with his own Williams’ law which states: whenever the profit incentive is missing, the probability that people’s wants can be safely ignored is the greatest.

H/T- Carpe Diem