Price transparency could be the healthcare win Trump wants (and America needs) 

Americans nationwide have every reason to be optimistic that positive change is on the horizon for the nation’s healthcare system. Though new government figures show costs $4.9 trillion per year and 17.6 percent of GDP, straining families, businesses, workers and public-sector budgets, President-elect Trump and his healthcare nominees are poised to deliver access to quality care at far lower costs, by fully realizing his price transparency legacy. 

Using power vested by the Affordable Care Act, Trump issued hospital and health insurance price transparency rules during his first administration that empower consumers, including employers and unions, with actual prices for their care and coverage. With this information, patients and employers can protect themselves from overcharges and choose affordable care.  

Nearly everyone has a story of being overcharged by the opaque U.S. healthcare system that blinds consumers to prices and forces them to pay for care with a blank check. Price transparency allows patients to rip off the blindfold and only pay agreed-upon, fair-market rates, just like in every other sector of the economy, and benefit from remedy and recourse if overbilled. 

According to JAMA, 25 percent of American healthcare spending is waste, overcharges and fraud. By eliminating this inefficiency, price transparency can reduce health expenditures by more than $1 trillion a year. 

Unfortunately, Trump’s rules have sat on the shelf with no enforcement, allowing hospitals and insurance companies to continue hiding prices from patients.  

According to a new report by PatientRightsAdvocate.org, only 21.1 percent of hospitals nationwide are fully complying with the hospital rule nearly four years after it took effect. Making matters worse, the Biden administration has rolled back the rule to allow unaccountable estimates to be published in lieu of actual prices. 

Trump’s healthcare nominees can finally make price transparency a reality. Their backgrounds in support of this issue give Americans confidence that the administration will reverse the Biden rollbacks and strictly enforce the rules, significantly reducing costs and restoring trust and accountability in healthcare. 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, is a proponent of price transparency. Following his nomination, he promised to "provide Americans with transparency and access to all the data so they can make informed choices for themselves and their families." 

Price transparency will be a vital component of Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again movement, empowering Americans to improve their physical and financial health. Under the opaque status quo, nearly two-thirds of Americans avoid needed care for fear of financial ruin, allowing conditions to progress to more serious diagnoses and more costly treatment plans. The first step to making America healthy again begins with Americans feeling like they can actually go to the doctor. 

Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump's pick to run the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), is also fully aware of price transparency’s importance. Oz and his agency are fully responsible for making sure all hospitals and health insurance middlemen post their prices upfront. This information empowers Americans to spot wide price variations for the same care even at the same hospital, such as colonoscopies that range from $1,200 to over $12,000. Prices are proof and empower patients and employers to fight egregious overcharges, errors, and fraud. 

Oz has explained how actual prices are needed to help patients and doctors make more informed decisions about treatments. "I'm a heart surgeon," he complained in 2017, "when I prescribe a medication for you, I have no idea what it's going to cost you." He understands that doctors and patients are blinded to prices, making it impossible for patients to make fully informed decisions for their health and financial future. 

Dr. Marty Makary, Trump's nominee to run the Food and Drug Administration, is one of the nation's strongest voices on healthcare price transparency. He explains in detail how actual prices protect patients in his 2019 book "The Price We Pay." In it, he highlights the story of Steph, a waitress in Carlsbad, N.M., who went to the hospital for morning sickness, was blinded to prices, and ultimately blindsided by a massive bill she could not pay. As a result, Steph has been sued and her wages garnished. These predatory billing practices in the current system have saddled 100 million Americans with medical debt. 

Makary addresses misguided groupthink in U.S. healthcare in his new book “Blind Spots.” The biggest blind spot, of course, is hidden prices and hospitals and health insurers violating the laws to reveal them. 

Price transparency has strong support from Americans of every background, and it’s easy to understand why. In contrast, American public opinion is souring on the healthcare industrial complex due to its rampant overcharges. Kennedy, Makary and Oz can fulfill Trump’s price transparency legacy and create a functional, competitive, free-market system that returns trillions of dollars of industry profits to worker wages, family wallets, business earnings and public-sector budgets, where they belong. 

Cynthia A. Fisher is the founder and chairman of PatientRightsAdvocate.org.