Electronic Health Reporter

Independent Women’s Voice (IWV) launches the Patient Protection Pledge, a promise to stand with patients and their right to know the price of healthcare services before receiving care. The pledge was designed to let constituents know which lawmakers and candidates are committed in their support for any bill that would require upfront genuine healthcare price transparency and cash prices for all medical products, procedures, providers, and services.

There is no issue that more dramatically pits the business-as-usual DC swamp against the interests of ordinary Americans. President Donald Trump recently called transparency, “the biggest thing ever done having to do with costs in health care.”

The pledge endorses full price transparency in health care, an issue which nearly 90% of Americans say is important to them. A whopping 98% of women age 40 and under support it, a critical cohort for Republicans and Democrats. Yet, efforts to make price transparency a reality have been clouded by healthcare lobbyists and special interest groups—like PBMs and PhRMA—who want to keep patients in the dark.

America’s current healthcare system is opaque, keeping consumers price-blind. It is wrong and unacceptable that Americans are not able to see healthcare prices in advance. We would never agree to buy anything else without knowing how much it is going to cost. Prices in health care should work the same way.

“Economists estimate that making healthcare prices transparent could drop healthcare costs for individuals and businesses down to the prices that cash-paying patients pay today, which average 40% lower than negotiated rates,” said Heather R. Higgins, CEO of IWV. “Leaders in Washington should support price transparency in health care—taking a stand for patients and against the dominant healthcare lobby enticing them to vote otherwise.”

“Less than 10% of healthcare spending is on emergencies. 90% should be shoppable. Patients deserve the right to know the price of healthcare services before receiving care, including real cash prices and negotiated rates with health plans, so they can make informed choices when shopping for care and coverage.”

Healthcare price transparency would allow patients to plan ahead for how to pay and shop among providers. It would open the door for Americans to make informed, value-driven decisions about their care.

Early signers of the Pledge include:

• Senator Mike Braun (R-IN)
• Rep. Mike Burgess (R-TX)
• Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA)
• Newt Gingrich, Former. Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
• Dr. Art Laffer, American economist and former member of President Ronald Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board
• Larry Van Horn, Executive Director of Health Affairs at Vanderbilt University
• Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC)
• Rep. Bill Flores (R-TX)

The Patient Protection Pledge is a project of IWV. Co-sponsors of the Pledge include Free2Care and Patients for Real Prices.

For more information on the Patient Protection Pledge, please visit www.PatientProtectionPledge.com.