Hospital Price Gaps Reveal a Broken US Health-Care Market

The price of hospital care in the US has long been hidden from patients, companies and taxpayers who get the bills — and that secrecy has made a hospital visit in some places prohibitively expensive. A Bloomberg News analysis of data compiled by Rand Corp. found more than 350 hospitals in communities across the country with significantly lower-cost competitors within 5 miles. Those disparities have those who must ultimately pay the bills asking the government to step in.