At a news conference last month, Gov. Jared Polis explained why the American health care system is outrageously expensive and predatory for most Coloradans: “One of the key failings of the market is the lack of pricing transparency that doesn’t allow for the competition to work as it does in any normal market, to bring down costs.”

Due to an absence of actual prices, hospitals and insurers can charge essentially whatever they want, and patients are powerless to stop them. According to the Colorado Health Access Survey, more than one million Coloradans can’t afford health care. They face destroyed credit and financial ruin through no fault of their own. One in five Coloradans avoid needed care because of the cost.

A new free online pricing tool is making it easier for consumers to find Colorado hospital prices, protect themselves from inflated medical bills and ensure the bills they do receive are accurate.

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I wish I’d had this tool a couple of years ago when I had a hysterectomy and experienced the high cost of hidden hospital prices. The surgery went fine, but then the bills came. Despite having health insurance, my local hospital in Broomfield charged me $64,000. When I couldn’t pay, the hospital sent me to debt collectors.

Knowing actual prices upfront would protect patients like me from overcharges and allow us to shop for affordable care. If I had known beforehand that my hysterectomy would cost $64,000, I would have gotten treatment at an affordable hospital instead.

I’ve since learned about a federal price transparency rule that took effect in January 2021 that requires hospitals to post their actual prices, including their cash and insurance rates. Yet only around one-third of hospitals nationwide are obeying the law.

Last year, Colorado passed state legislation to strengthen this rule. “We added real teeth to it in Colorado,” said Gov. Polis. The state law makes noncompliance a violation of the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Now more Colorado hospitals are posting their prices, but they aren’t making it easy to shop and compare those prices. Consumers have to go hospital by hospital and download massive files hard to interpret.

Enter the Colorado Hospital Price Finder. Developed by the nonprofit PatientRightsAdvocate.org, this tool makes it easier for consumers to compare and save. It brings prices from Colorado hospitals together on one webpage, similar to other online marketplaces we use to shop for other goods and services.

Coloradans can use this site to choose fair-market care and ensure their bills are accurate. I found many hospitals in the state offer hysterectomies for an insurance rate of around $10,000. If only I had this information when I needed it.

Colorado employers may be the biggest beneficiaries of such price information. They can use it to spot quality care at the lowest possible prices for their covered employees. They can then share ensuing savings in the form of lower premiums and higher wages.

Policymakers can assist such grassroots efforts to reduce health care costs by increasing hospital price transparency enforcement and broadening actual price transparency requirements throughout the health care system. Colorado U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper has cosponsored a bipartisan federal bill called the Health Care PRICE Transparency Act 2.0 that does just this.

This combination of state, federal and grassroots action can finally remove the veil between health care and prices, ushering in a functioning marketplace that makes health care affordable.

Cyndy Reddy is a resident of Broomfield.