The Surgery Center of Oklahoma is an absolutely amazing medical facility. Founded in 1997, this hospital takes no insurance. Everything is cash on the barrel. How much cash on the barrel?
Go to their menu of surgery prices and click on the body part that ails you most. Gall bladder removal with biopsy: $7,556. Appendectomy: $7,368. Knee replacement: $17,679. These prices are all-included; there are no $100 charges six months later from a catering service who delivered a protein bar while you were catheterized.
Compare that with Suburban Hospital’s opacity when it comes to pricing. Look at their web site and try to find the price for anything. The only link pertaining to pricing is Pay Your Bill. Shady Grove hospital is a bit better, showing the estimated charges for the hospital stay, but that doesn’t include all the other physician or ancillary charges. Holy Cross and MedStar suffer from the similar opacity.
(Let’s be clear: our county’s hospitals are world class and we must be thankful they are within reach. We’re highlighting pricing, not quality.)
I bring this all up because Council Member Gabe Albornoz is also concerned about price transparency (as we all should be), and was the lead sponsor for the 2023 Bill 7-23 – Consumer Protection – Gasoline Station Signage. The bill requires service stations to more transparently post prices for gasoline to prevent “deceptive, unfair, or unconscionable trade practices.”
Item 1: Think about your living-room conversations during the past decade. Has the matter of deceptive pricing at service stations ever come up? As we drive around we become familiar with the pricey stations and those stations that are economical (FreeState in Rockville and Silver Spring come to mind). The chances of your being swindled due to deceptive signage are exceedingly low. Even if you are swindled at 20¢/gallon, that’s an annualized (12,000 miles ÷ 35 mpg) × 20¢/gallon = $68 per year. Our vegan pumpkin frappuccino addictions cost us a whole lot more than that. No, deceptive signage is not a big problem.
Item 2: The council’s own Office of Legislative Oversight concluded that Albornoz’s legislation would have almost zero impact regarding racial equity, social justice, county finances, county economy, or climate.
Item 3: Were Albornoz so concerned about county residents losing $68/year, you would think he would also demand that our hospitals post transparent price lists. Were he concerned about “deceptive, unfair, or unconscionable trade practices,” he would demand more transparency from the teachers’ union, the school district, Ride-On, or Montgomery College. But he isn’t concerned about transparency. After six years on the County Council, he hasn’t done much to address our festering problems, but conjures solutions to other irrelevant problems.
If you really are concerned about racial equity and social justice, you need to look somewhere other than our county’s progressives.
