Commentary: To Fix Health Care We Need Prices, Not Price Controls

Commentary: To Fix Health Care We Need Prices, Not Price Controls

You can’t have a market without prices, which is a major reason why health care is such a mess. Nobody knows what anything costs, even though the vast majority of medical services are not emergencies. In President Donald Trump’s first term, he took this problem on by mandating that hospitals that participate in Medicare and Medicaid (all of them do, of course) post their prices. But compliance was poor, and under President Joe Biden there was li…

To Fix Health Care We Need Prices, Not Price Controls

You can’t have a market without prices, which is a major reason why health care is such a mess. Nobody knows what anything costs, even though the vast majority of medical services are not emergencies. In President Donald Trump’s first term, he took this problem on by mandating that hospitals that participate in Medicare and...

Price Controls Can't Improve Health Care, but Price Tags Can

You can’t have a market without prices, which is a major reason why health care is such a mess. Nobody knows what anything costs, even though the vast majority of medical services are not emergencies. In President Donald Trump’s first term, he took this problem on by mandating that hospitals that participate in Medicare and...

In Health Care What’s Needed Is Prices – Not Price Controls

One of our top policy projects at UP is requiring price transparencies at all hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and insurance companies so patients actually know what services cost. The House Ways and Means Committee took a big step towards price transparency yesterday with the passage of H.R. 9645, the “Health Care Price Certainty for All Americans Act.” Chairman Jason Smith made the case well: “The insurance company knows the price. The middlema…