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When he returned to the office, President-elect Trump he has a chance to fix America's broken health care system by doubling down on his first program to provide price transparency for patients.
Instead of protecting American patients, the Biden administration repealed or failed to fully implement basic requirements that patients should know the cost of their treatment before receiving it.
Finally removing the veil between medical services and pricesTrump can empower patients to buy the right care at the right price, avoid co-pays, and give employers and unions a better idea of costs upfront so they can create their own health benefits.
President-elect Trump speaks at AmericaFest, Sunday, December 22, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scooteri)
Recommitting to this reform should be at the center of Trump's first 100-day agenda.
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Trump's 2019 executive order that improved price and quality transparency in American health care and hospital and health insurance pricing transparency laws gave Americans real information about their medical services for the first time . Patients end up with the same information as they do with other purchases, seeing a price range of 10 times or more for the same care and shopping around. around for cheap services.
Unfortunately, President Biden gradually undermined Trump's transparency rules affecting hospitals, insurance and prescription drugs. Hospital price transparency was the first to be implemented and should be the first.
Although the current system requires hospitals to follow high standards, often the information that hospitals include is incomplete. In fact, a new study by PatientRightsAdvocate.org shows that only 21.1% of hospitals nationwide are fully compliant and both set their own discounted prices and all negotiated fees by health insurance company and plan.
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Lack of enforcement may have contributed to poor compliance: in February, 34.5% of hospitals were compliant, compared to 21.1% of hospitals found to be compliant this fall . The Biden administration facilitated this non-compliance by refusing to enforce the law, issuing only 15 fines to thousands of non-compliant hospitals across the country.
The lack of enforcement is accompanied by administrative actions that undermine these patient protections: The Biden administration has allowed hospitals to set other cost factors, including estimates, algorithms and percentages, in lieu of actual prices. .
No consumer shops around to check algorithms or percentages – they need to price health services like any other service they use. Only real prices allow consumers to choose the highest quality care at the lowest price and free competition to reduce high costs.
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Estimates do not hold hospitals accountable if they leave patients with late bills. And starting next year, the Biden administration will let hospitals continue to avoid transparency requirements so that hospitals only need to show one type of charge rather than all the negotiated charges required to purchase. .
As it continues to ignore the needs of patients, the Biden administration has repeatedly delayed President Trump's demands for insurers to provide prescription drug prices and detailed costs to patients ahead of time with Advanced Benefit Explanations, which patients can use to compare their out-of-pocket costs.
Trump could follow up on his first-term efforts by immediately strengthening and tightening his own price transparency rules when he takes office.
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That means backpedaling and the Biden administration's delay in ensuring that hospitals are required to publish real prices in dollars and cents for all their services and that insurers share the information patients need to make purchases. prescription drugs and medical care. And it means always imposing financial penalties for non-compliance.
Patients need clear pricing urgently. Under the invisible conditions, the cost of American health care has risen to 17.3% of the economy, almost twice the average of the developed world. There are over 100 million Americans medical liabilitymany of whom are facing bankruptcy due to debts whose price was unknown. These challenges complicate any effort to improve America's health.
This effort is not good for American health: A group of 32 economists, including Arthur B. Laffer and Steve Forbes, recently sent a joint letter to Congress explaining how price transparency can drive nearly $1 trillion annually from unproductive health care. industries to a competitive economy, including labor wages and business wages.
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A recent poll reveals 92% of Americans support it health care price transparency. It's clear that Americans of all political stripes are sick of hidden health care costs and huge bills that they could have avoided if prices had been known in advance.
President Trump can unite these Americans and burnish his legacy by making health care price transparency a reality and installing an affordable and accountable health care system.