When it comes to transforming health and health care in America, Florida is leading the way in innovation. Pioneering solutions in a variety of areas, from expanded health information technology to choice in Medicaid to improving consumer health-care information, Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Legislature are creating the first statewide model of a 21st-century intelligent health system.

Senior Fellow Newt Gingrich

Florida's vision is to provide in health-care delivery the same level of efficiency, quality, accuracy and choice that we have come to expect every day in the rest of the American marketplace. As a key step to achieving this vision, Florida is providing its citizens with price and quality information about medical services, which they can use to make critical and potentially life-saving decisions for themselves and their families.

Americans are accustomed to leading their lives empowered with the responsibility and knowledge to determine what is best for them. Outside of health care, we live in the world of Expedia, Travelocity, CraigsList and Consumer Reports. Within minutes, any citizen can find price, cost and performance data on an infinite number of products and services. This transparent system puts the consumer squarely at the center of the market. As a result, there emerges a 21st-century pattern of more choices of greater quality at lower cost.

Yet, this normal pattern is absent in health care. Individuals are at the mercy of a health-care system that has not kept pace with the technological advancement, transparency and modernization that nearly every other industry has embraced. The consequences are tragic: Medical errors continue to kill thousands; costs continue to rise faster than inflation; the number of uninsured continues to climb and consumers still remain at the edges of the system.

We can change this. But in order to do so, informed and proactive consumers must be at the center of the system. According to a recent poll conducted by America's Health Insurance Plans, 93 percent of respondents said they believe they have a right to know how their health-care providers perform. A basic premise of building a 21st-century intelligent health system is that consumers do have the right--and the responsibility--to make informed decisions about how their health-care dollars are spent.

In most cases, however, the current health-care system prevents Americans from comparing the cost and the quality of the various health services, products or providers they are considering. This situation is tantamount to asking someone to shop for a car when the dealer hides the prices, rolls back the odometers, and does not disclose that his lot is filled with a fleet of rental cars.

While the vast majority of states keep secret the cost and quality data they collect, Gov. Bush and state Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Alan Levine have made Florida the first state in the country to openly report a wide range of cost and quality measures for its hospitals and outpatient facilities.

FloridaCompareCare.gov has a wealth of information on everything from hospital infection and mortality rates to the cost and frequency of surgical procedures performed. Knowing which hospitals have the highest and lowest death rates--and the highest and lowest prices--allows the consumer to choose the best-performing, highest-value hospital. What surprises many is that high quality and low price often go hand-in-hand. By shining a light on the poorest performing hospitals and outpatient facilities, Gov. Bush and his team are saving lives and saving money for all Floridians.

A second Florida site, MyFloridaRx.com, further promotes the consumer's right to know by providing retail pricing information for the 50 most commonly used prescription drugs in Florida. This site helps consumers get the most out of their money. A quick search of one ZIP code in Miami shows that, in the case of one drug, the cost of 30 pills ranges from $91 in one location to $220 in another.

Demonstrating a commitment to consumer-driven health care, Florida has taken a monumental step toward genuinely empowering the people to be better consumers of health care. It is time for the rest of the nation to follow.

Newt Gingrich a senior fellow at AEI. David Merritt is a project director at the Center for Health Transformation.