New Era of an excellent healthcare system in USA is not far away.

Thanks to the strides made by Obama administration to do something about the exponentially rising healthcare cost that we finally have started moving. The government released data of what hospitals are charging Medicare for common procedures and what is the final amount Medicare is paying( surprised that Medicare is effectively able to negotiate and majority of times pay approx. 30% of the bill which tells me how overinflated rates the hospitals are charging)
I was shocked to see the difference in price of a total knee replacement which can vary from approx. 5-6K in a hospital in Oklahoma to approx. 220K in Monterey, CA...... Same procedure, similar outcomes and such a HUGE  difference in bill??
I am so Happy that Medicare is making things transparent for general public, now we can go to the CMS website and compare hospitals and possibly in future shop around to determine which is more affordable,

Affordable care act will kick in soon... can't wait to see what it will have to offer..

http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/index.html

For detail information see the following article:
http://dnews.com/news_ap/article_4c0b4baf-c4f2-5945-925d-45e2b1dc0deb.html