There is HUGE price discoverability capacity in healthcare. But the US is not a free market: every single player has some sort of regulatory capture to mess it up, including workers, that get tax benefits and are blind to price through employer provided insurance.
Price sensitivity does work for high deductible plans, pointing to the basic economic principal-agency problem of the current system: if you have low copays and you cant choose insurances because your employer pays for it, you are a price insensitive patient.
My favorite example is OneMedical: one of the biggest complains patients have is "why do I have to pay 150 a year", while their healthcare plan is thousands A MONTH and a single doctor visit costs 300 U$S!
> have little option in substitution (if my appendix is ruptured my substitution to getting surgery is dying!)
Emergency healthcare is a small fraction of overall healthcare spending, and it is NOT expensive because of insurance, its expensive because hospitals are expensive. It doesn't make sense to complain to an auto-insurance company that fixing cars is expensive, its completley out of their hands, and they actually work in your favor to reduce costs if they can.
And medicine has PLENTY of substitutes. From cheaper drugs, to less accessible and lower quality healthcare. It's called the Iron Triangle of Healthcare: cost-quality-access. You can find your place in the triangle.
