It is not like going to the grocery store where your choices range from no-name sale items to organic delicacies. Most North Americans, particularly those not living in metropolitan areas, don’t have much choice in where their advanced medical care needs are addressed, and thus may not give the cost of that care much thought.  But even with a choice of hospitals in their immediate area, or the means to seek care out of state or province, most people know more about the quality and pricing of their cars than their health care.  This is largely due to health care costs are being covered or at least partially financed by intermediaries like health insurers and employers.

In 2005 the U.S. government, the biggest purchaser of health care in the United States, began posting what Medicare pays hospitals for common procedures like heart surgeries and knee replacements, in an effort to educate Americans on the price and quality of their health care.

Tennessee has taken this to the next step and today launched Tennessee Hospitals Inform. The new site lists average prices for common procedures at most of the state's 136 acute-care hospitals.

This move by Tennessee’s hospitals to tell patients upfront about prices is part of a larger trend toward consumer-driven health care — high-deductible plans, often combined with savings accounts, which require people to pay more money out of pocket.

Today people generally don't have a clue what the health care they are consuming costs, nor do they have any means to be able to compare.  And with patients making more decisions about their medical care, several commercial Web sites and sites run by insurers, have begun posting some price information online to fill this knowledge gap.