This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, August 19th, 2015.

I'm Caleb Brown.

For all the benefits of American health care, low prices for consumers isn't always one of them.

Government regulation in its myriad forms regularly keeps consumers from knowing and often even caring

about the costs of health care services.

Cato Director of Health Policy Studies,

Michael Cannon explains.

The Associated Press reports that Mark Bolsaern,

who is a 56-year- old man from Anchorage, Alaska

by choosing to go to Mexico

to have some dental work done, saved $62,000.

And obviously we like to talk about how great the U.S.

medical system can be, and of course there are some ways that it is second to none in the world

but a savings of 62,000 dollars for a dental procedure seems like quite a lot.

Some pretty intensive dental procedures actually.

And although that's a little bit misleading

because he found another quote that was,

instead of $65,000 is only $35,000 if it were performed by dental

students here in the United States.

But he found a dentist just across the border in Mexico who would be willing to do it for

$3,000.

So that's where the 62 or $32,000 in savings comes from.

...