In an era of political gridlock, at least one clear area of bipartisan common ground continues to exist — the desire for real healthcare price transparency.In fact, a 2025 poll showed 96% of Americans across the political spectrum are in favor of the commonsense idea that you deserve to know the price of healthcare before receiving it.
And finally, tangible progress is being made in both chambers of Congress to build upon numerous executive orders and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rules and make healthcare price transparency the law of the land.But why is healthcare price transparency so important?First, healthcare price transparency is a needed initial step to fix the broken healthcare market.It allows for better, more accurate price signals, empowering patients with key information that allow them to shop for non-emergent healthcare goods and services.
It also puts public pressure on care providers to justify prices, which may or may not be reasonable.I say let the market work.
Ultimately, this drives up competition, which — in turn — lowers prices.In every other industry, we’ve seen this benefit the American consumer — why not healthcare?3 STEPS THAT COULD STOP FRAUD AND MAKE HEALTHCARE MORE AFFORDABLE FOR ALL AMERICANSAnd it is no question that competition driven by transparency is needed.
Currently, prices for the exact same procedure can range nearly 10-times, and even the same procedure within a given hospital can have wildly different prices based on backroom negotiations and often arbitrary price tags.But the problem is amplified when the prices not only differ within and across hospitals but are secret to those receiving, and ultimately paying for, the care until the bill arrives weeks to months later.
With over 40% of Americans with healthcare debt and more than 40 million Americans on high-deductible health insurance plans, the opaque nature of healthcare billing is simply unacceptable.Second, we spend about one in every...