How a Die-Hard Libertarian Is Negotiating Lower Health-Care Costs

By 6:30 a.m. on a chilly Wednesday last year, the Surgery Center of Oklahoma is bustling. Six miles north of the state Capitol, beside a stretch of Route 77 lined with medical facilities, spouses waiting in the lobby scroll through their phones and slurp coffee from foam cups. A toddler in a Tigger-print medical gown and pajamas is on the way toward the operating room for his tonsillectomy, a doctor leading him by the hand. Those waiting include a young man in for a sinus operation and a middle-aged woman getting a hysterectomy. It’s a diverse caseload by the standards of your average surgery center—most SCs focus on just one branch of surgery, such as thoracic or orthopedic. But what really separates SCO is its price transparency. There are no hidden fees, no massive charges mailed to patients’ homes months later. The flat cost of each procedure has been set and mostly paid beforehand, often at a fraction of what a mainstream hospital in the area would charge.