The Kaiser Family Foundation’s April Health Tracking Poll found that fewer people than expected have seen or used comparisons of quality and prices in the last 12 months. Just 15 percent of respondents saw information on health and insurance plan quality and only 6 percent used it to make purchasing decisions by making comparisons among health plans. Only 18 of respondents said they saw any information on health-plan prices, with just 9 percent using it.
Yet again, more proof of the remarkable passivity of consumers, even in sectors as expensive and important as health. But then, healthcare pricing remains all too opaque and confusing.
