I think the opacity argument is beginning to shift.  I was listening to NPR on my drive home the other day and some people have really started working on this very interesting problem.<p>There are now 3rd party companies that work with insurance companies that will show you the costs that they incur from specific providers.  Not only that, but there&#x27;s an economic incentive for you to skip on going to the highest priced location for drugs or a physician.  An example is MRI costs.  They differ wildly in costs for the exact same thing.  Anywhere from $1K-$10K.  There really isn&#x27;t much difference in either company in terms of quality of service.  So what happens is that the insurance company hedges their bet.  They&#x27;d rather pay you a certain amount of money (say $100) to go to maybe a $2K place instead of the place in Beverly Hills due to their pricing.<p>So it&#x27;s changing, but it&#x27;s taking some time...  Either way, it is a brilliant economic mechanism to solve the problem of rising costs in healthcare.