This year Minnesota lawmakers proposed a law to prohibit providers from charging varying prices to consumers.  To be clear, the law does not tell providers what price to set.  It just forces the price to be uniform regardless of who pays.   While the proposal never became law, it generated an incredible amount of interest.

Forcing providers to charge a uniform price was intended to solve a number of market problems related to insurance company and provider consolidation.  Proponents also hoped the policy would make prices more transparent, reduce administative costs, and place a renewed focus on quality.

As the debate was moving along this past session, I released a paper assessing what Minnesota can expect from uniform pricing.  On balance, I conclude that uniform pricing would do more harm than good.  I identify a number of possible unintended consequence, including higher average prices, reduced access, underutilized health care facilities, and more aggravating health plan policies.  That said, I don't conclude it's an entirely bad idea.