Prices are normally made available to the party who is paying for them. In our system, that is predominantly an insurance company or the government (both of whom watch prices very carefully).
If we ever get to a single payer system (as we should), consumers will be completely disconnected from pricing. If we were to move towards a more free market system (which we shouldn’t), consumers would be very aware of pricing. Until either of those things happen, people paying out-of-pocket are kind of in a pinch.
