In a new op-ed, Steve Forbes, CEO of Forbes Media and former presidential candidate, and Steve Moore, founder of Committee to Unleash Prosperity, highlight how the rising cost of healthcare is unsustainable and how hospitals play a major role in this crisis. Contributing to inflated costs by being vague with pricing, they leave patients and taxpayers footing the bill.

Currently, hospitals mark up medical services by as much as seven times the actual cost. These hidden costs add up quickly, and much of the federal spending on healthcare is wasted on “administrative waste, errors, overcharging, and fraud”. Price transparency would introduce competition, reduce waste, and drive down costs– ultimately benefiting taxpayers.

In President Trump’s first term, he signed an executive order establishing the Hospital Price Transparency Rule, until that effort was rolled back by the Biden Administration. These reforms should be re-implemented to hold hospitals accountable for their pricing.

It is time we have price transparency from hospitals– this is the key to lowering costs and creating a more efficient and competitive healthcare system. Better Solutions will continue to advocate for this change.