For routine care, people with insurance have a copayment that's fixed and printed on their insurance card. They care about and can easily find that price, and it's the price they pay, so why should they care what's going on behind the scenes between the doctor and their insurance company?
Except this disproves the "just show the price" argument. People know what the price is they'll pay for routine care, because it's printed on the card.
The one that's hard to figure out is what you'll pay for inpatient or otherwise complex/non-routine care, which is often where "shop around for a good price" isn't possible anyway. If you get hospitalized for a heart attack, you can't find out the price in advance, but you also don't have time to anyway.
All my previous comments explain that the heart attack example does meant much for how we should handle routine care.
A low flat rate for that is the same for an ear infection and 12k MRI leads to misuse. Price is a signal to suppliers and consumers. High prices causes consumers to look for alternatives. It also drivers more suppliers to the market. Flat copay does none of this
