Before You Get Sick, Shop Around

As much as many consumers hate shopping for cars, that's nothing compared with trying to price out a medical procedure or a routine visit to the doctor.

There's really no reason you shouldn't get the best deal on a car. There are many resources available with the latest costs to buy a certain model and anything in it. You can find the price of a high-tech navigational system you're dying to have or an engine block heater, whatever that is, which by the way costs $42 (invoice) on a 2007 Buick LaCrosse.

But try finding out the cost for a knee repair or giving birth by a Caesarean section. More people probably know the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden than the average cost of their health services.

In fact, one consumer health-care survey found that the typical consumer could predict the price of a Honda Accord to within $1,000, but was off by about $12,000 in estimating the average cost of a four-day hospital stay. People guessed an average of $7,762 when the cost was $20,000.

When it came to the cost of a routine doctor's office visit, respondents guessed an average of $95, according to a survey by Harris Interactive for employee benefits provider Great-West Healthcare.

The actual average cost for a doctor's visit? $200. For emergency room visits, respondents estimated $680. The cost was actually lower, $400.

According to the survey, more than half of those who responded did not know the cost of treatment until it was received (68 percent), and 11 percent revealed they never found out the cost.

Many people fortunate enough to be covered by an employer health plan haven't been paying attention to health costs because we count on our health insurance carrier to negotiate the price. We pay our annual premiums and, if required, fork over our co-payments and let the insurers deal with the rest of the bill.

But increasingly, workers are being pushed into consumer-directed health plans that are supposed to encourage people to look for lower-cost medical services. These plans often come with high deductibles, meaning that more employees will have to pay larger amounts out of pocket before benefits kick in.

And this means more people will need to know what their medical services cost to determine if it's worth switching to a consumer-driven plan.

But where do you get that information? It's not like there's a handy-dandy price guide sold in bookstores. To determine what you will pay, you'll have to do some research, and perhaps pay for the pricing information.

So before you decide which health plan, try the following resources: