Learning about health care costs can be fun. Just ask ‘Dr. Plinko’

An assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine has come up with an entertaining way to illustrate the high cost of drugs and medical products.

Dr. Adam Berkwitt recently channeled “The Price is Right” game show host Bob Barker when he debuted his own game show titled “Dr. Plinko” at a New Haven arts festival in October.

The game show was modeled after the popular Plinko game on “The Price is Right” where contestants guess the cost of consumer products for a chance to win up to $50,000.

For an educational twist, Yale News reports, contestants playing Berkwitt’s version earned Plinko chips if they could guess the prices of various over-the-counter medications and medical items.

Players could then drop their chips on a pegboard mimicking the popular game on “The Price is Right.”

Berkwitt says most patients and physicians have no idea what medical products and prescription drugs actually cost, other than that they’re really expensive.

His goal in creating the game show was to educate people about the high cost of health care.

“There’s also been a shift toward transparency in medicine and in increasing consumer awareness,” he said. “But even with this increasing transparency, it’s difficult to understand where these prices come from. Who profits? I think the ‘Dr. Plinko’ game is kind of a fun way to talk about the absurdity of these costs.”

Berkwitt wanted the game to start a conversation, but that’s not all. He hopes it will lead to change in the larger healthcare economic system.

To learn more about what’s driving up the cost of prescription medications of all types, check out the Voices for Affordable Health original report on Medical Cost Inflation.