Rand Paul: In Health Care the ‘Consumer Is Disconnected from the Product’

EXCERPT:

PAUL: "You’re exactly right. I can summarize the health care cost problem in one sentence and we don't address it. The one sentence is, the reason capitalism doesn't work in health care is the consumer is disconnected from the product. Consumers do not make decisions based on price in health care except for a few exceptions. LASIK surgery, when you want surgery to get rid of glasses, everybody asks the price, the average consumer calls four different doctors, it's a very sophisticated laser, million dollar laser, and yet the price is going down by three quarters over 15 years. Contact lenses, same way. When you connect the consumer and the consumer cares about the price, guess what? The consumer will shop. And when the consumer shops, competition works. But we're not really doing that in healthcare."