Summary: Insured? Pay for yourself? On the National Health Service? Hospitals in the United Kingdom have been relatively forthcoming about listing prices. Gall bladder surgery in Cambridge, we learned, will set us back 5,130 pounds all in ($8,614 at the current exchange rate), at a Nuffield Hospitals facility. At the Hospital Corporation of America hospitals in the U.K., it’s 6,221 pounds ($10,446).
These price lists are easily searchable on the sites. Some terms and conditions apply — for example, the HCA site says the prices apply only to U.K. residents.
We do see, though, the words “guaranteed, all-inclusive.” This seems pretty easy to do. If these two big hospital chains can do it, maybe there’s hope here in the United States.
Here’s the Nuffield Health pay-as-you-go page, or you can click on the image below. Here’s the HCA site for the United Kingdom, or you can click on the image below.
Nuffield Health
Hospital Corporation of America — United Kingdom division
Jeanne Pinder is the founder and CEO of ClearHealthCosts. She worked at The New York Times for almost 25 years as a reporter, editor and human resources executive, then volunteered for a buyout and founded ClearHealthCosts.
With Pinder at the helm, ClearHealthCosts shared honors for the top network public service journalism project in a partnership with CBS News, as well as winning numerous other journalism prizes.
She was previously a fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia University School of Journalism. ClearHealthCosts has won grants from the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York; the International Women’s Media Foundation; the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with KQED public radio in San Francisco and KPCC in Los Angeles; the Lenfest Foundation in Philadelphia for a partnership with The Philadelphia Inquirer; and the New York State Health Foundation for a partnership with WNYC public radio/Gothamist in New York; and other honors.
She is one of Crain’s Notable Women in Tech. Niemanlab wrote of ClearHealthCosts that “The Internet hates secrets.”
Her TED talk about fixing health costs has surpassed 2 million views.