Dear Member of Congress,

 

Americans deserve to know healthcare prices. Sadly, today, they too often have difficulty accessing this vital information.

 

Independent Women’s Voice, which fights to enhance people’s freedom, choices, and opportunities, is proud to support the Health Care PRICE Transparency Act which would require hospitals and insurance companies to share the prices of healthcare with patients.

 

The current Administration, even prior to the pandemic, had been working to make price transparency in health care a reality by advancing several new rules requiring hospitals and insurers to disclose their real cash prices and their negotiated rates, which are currently hidden. The PRICE Transparency Act would codify these rules.

 

Price transparency–which is basically non-existent in today’s healthcare industry–would offer more information, choices, financial certainty, and peace of mind to Americans. Today, many patients don’t learn the prices of their medical services until after the fact. We would never agree to this when buying other goods and services. Health care– over 90 percent of which is non-emergent or “shoppable”–should operate the same way. Critically, arming patients with pricing information and allowing them to shop for health care would put significant downward pressure on prices, bringing today’s sky-high healthcare costs down for all Americans. 

 

Price transparency would be transformative, particularly for women who, on average, consume more health care than men and who often make financial and health care decisions for their family members. If women had better access to this kind of information, they could use it to shop around for the best value and prepare for upcoming healthcare expenses.

 

IWV thanks Senator Braun and Representative Flores for their leadership on making healthcare more transparent and urges all Members of Congress to work toward the swift passage of the Health Care PRICE Transparency Act.

 

Respectfully,

 

Hadley Heath Manning

Director of Policy

Independent Women’s Voice