Can you point to the enumerated power of Congress that allows them to force my local provider to follow such a federal mandate as price transparency.
I promise you that my next colonoscopy is only interstate commerce if you’re stretching things not meant to be thusly stretched more than my doc.
It’s all well and good until you look at the authority by which the federal government has the power to enforce mandates. And that is what price transparency is, a mandate on providers. Looked at another way, conservatives are supposed to be champions of reducing regulations on how a business operates because doing so makes doing business easier. This wouldn’t be a small regulation. It would be a huge regulation, on a group of providers already regulated to the breaking point.
My reason for liking price transparency is more a function of age rather than enumerated powers or true vine conservative principles. There was a time when a patient could know that the pricing on the doctor or hospital bill was a reflection of all costs and the profit necessary for the service to continue. Today, it is nearly impossible to arrive at that conclusion due to the interference of Medicare and the insurance industry working to exercise their muscle as a “consumer” rather than the patient being first in the mind of the provider.
Mandates = Bad...gotcha, agreed — see Medicare comment above. At the base of the entire healthcare discussion, it remains a problem that costs have risen unchecked due to the disconnect of the patient from the payment through insurance. Other elements of this plan seek to turn that around so it stands to reason that if you want market forces to be paramount, true vine conservative principle #1 IMO, information is the primary lever the patient has as a market force. I’m all for any way that can be done without a mandate yet getting the information to the patient still deserves to be mentioned as a factor in any healthcare overhaul.