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FIRST ON FOX: A top parental rights group is urging President Donald Trump to take more steps to improve healthcare pricing transparency, an issue the Trump administration says Joe Biden’s administration failed to adequately address.
The American Parents Coalition, which previously made headlines for its advocacy on behalf of parents regarding gender identity issues, sent a letter to President Trump, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Treasury, and the Department of Labor on Tuesday thanking them for the work they have done so far on improving healthcare pricing transparency, but also urging them to do more.
“There is still much work to be done on this front,” the letter to Trump insisted. “Healthcare shouldn’t be a gamble for parents, and we shouldn’t have to fight for transparency when our full focus should be on our children’s health. With clear, detailed, and accurate price breakdowns before care, informed parents can do what they have always wanted: make the best decisions for their children’s wellbeing, without sacrificing financial stability.”
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The Trump administration has continued actions to improve healthcare pricing transparency that it began pursuing during President Trump’s first administration. (George Clerk via Getty Images)
One of the president’s first moves on this issue during his second term was a February Executive Order aimed at ramping up implementation and enforcement of existing transparency regulations for hospitals and health plans ushered in during his first term. According to the order, progress on price transparency “stalled” during the previous Biden administration, pointing out that price transparency data that was supposed to be posted was often incomplete or not even posted at all.
“After President Trump’s landmark price transparency regulations from his first term were left to languish by the inept Joe Biden, the second Trump Administration is in full gear developing the most aggressive price transparency enforcement possible,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told Fox News Digital.
Following the February executive directive, HHS, the Labor and Treasury departments jointly announced a package of actions to “strengthen healthcare price transparency.” Among those actions was a request for public input on how to better increase price transparency and updated federal guidance aimed at eliminating meaningless or duplicative data while making cost information easier for people to understand and utilize.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CSM) also released independent agency guidance directing hospitals and health plans to post “the actual prices of items and services, not estimates.”
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Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks at a press conference with Senate Republican leadership following their weekly policy luncheons in Washington, D.C., on September 16. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Since these actions early in Trump’s first term, the entire administration has continued to take steps to carry out the orders from Trump’s February executive order on price transparency, which built on similar initiatives from his first administration. One example is updating its federally operated repository with new resources to help hospitals comply with changes to hospital price transparency requirements.
“President Trump already signed another price transparency executive order just over a month into his second term to fine noncompliant hospitals, and additional actions to advance this presidential priority are actively under review,” the White House noted.
According to the American Parents Coalition, which argued in their letter to President Trump that the financial uncertainty around healthcare costs “is crippling American families,” there is one policy prescription that could be a quick, yet monumental, win for families and parents.
In their letter to Trump, the American Parents Coalition said that new policy directed at insurance providers, requiring them to tell patients “exactly” what they will cover, what they will not, and transparently sharing how much patients will have to pay out-of-pocket, “could be quickly implemented to deliver another win for American families.”
The American Parents Coalition says the next step in promoting better healthcare pricing transparency is to compel insurers to tell patients what they will cover, will not cover and how much in out-of-pocket expenses will be required for treatment. (Getty Images; AP; iStock)
“Parents deserve to know the price of healthcare, just like when we shop for groceries or plan activities for our kids. Hidden healthcare costs make financial planning impossible and decisions difficult,” said American Parents Coalition Executive Director Alleigh Marre.
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“Given the uncertainty of pricing when going to the doctor, parents may forgo medical care or opt out of appointments for themselves or their children, putting their health at risk. Thanks to President Trump and his Make America Healthy Again agenda, he is paving the way for families to have access to prices through healthcare price transparency, but there is more work to be done and we are urging the Trump Administration to continue implementing these transparency policies that will have huge impacts on parents.”
As part of the coalition’s effort to continue pushing for greater price transparency within the healthcare system, it launched a new television advertisement that began airing Tuesday, as well as a new website titled ParentsNeedPrices.com.
