free to compete, but they must charge everybody the same. No in and out of network, no Medicare or medicaid discounts, no AARP discounts or IBM employee discounts. Let them publish prices online.

Medical codes must be standardized. Even things like patient history forms, etc could all be standardized. As I said in my original post I wouldn't even mind it if insurance plans were standardized as long as there were real choices and I could get a plan that did not include free office visits, free physical, OB/GYN care, substance abuse insurance, and had a $50k deductible. (or some truly bare bones, truly catastrophic only insurance).

Standardize whatever you want, but NOT price, otherwise hospitals become like utilities with little incentive to cut costs. They will come before the medical pricing review board every three years looking for price increases.