Economist Vivian Ho has been researching the U.S. health care system for four decades. These days, she’s focused on what she thinks are the biggest burdens on the average American: runaway hospital prices and rising health insurance premiums.
She has developed a strategy for addressing high insurance premiums — one that’s based on giving patients reliable information about how much they, and their insurer, would have to pay for care. The system is already working in Massachusetts. Could it be a model for the rest of the country?
Ho explains to Dan Weissmann, host of “An Arm and a Leg,” why she thinks this approach could help curb high prices and how listeners can help prove it by sharing their medical bills.
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Transcript: This Health Economist Wants Your Medical Bills
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Dan: Hey there–
Vivian Ho is a health economist at Rice University and the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. And since early 2024, she’s been giving talks at… HR conferences. Which is not a typical gig for an economist.
Vivian Ho: Um, yes. Economists don’t usually do that. We love to go talk at our own conferences.
Dan: But she’s been eager to spread a pretty big message.
Vivian Ho: There’s a potential to save workers, um, you know, and employees a lot of money.
Dan: And a few weeks ago, she sent me an email asking for help with what she’s trying to do:
She’s wants folks to send her hospital bills for a study she thinks could be part of saving people a lot of moneys. She wondered if I’d encourage people to pitch in.
And honestly, I wanted to say yes before I even really knew anything specific about the stud …