By Pat Simmons / For The Herald
Like a growing number of retirees, my husband and I left the United States over its high cost of living. For many of us, health care costs are a particularly grave concern due to their lack of transparency and potential to bankrupt even families who have carefully saved for decades.
New state health care legislation can protect Washington residents from financial ruin. Senate Bill 5493 requires Washington hospitals to post their upfront prices, including their negotiated insurance plan and discounted cash rates. With price transparency, health care consumers can benefit from financial peace of mind and recourse when overbilled.
I recently testified before state legislators in favor of this legislation and told my story of how even expatriation couldn’t save me from the predatory U.S. health care system.
On a visit back home to see family in the Seattle area in 2023, I experienced a bad stomach ache and nausea. I went to the emergency room at a hospital in Burien, and the physician there ran a few tests, ordered an abdominal CT scan, and referred me to a gastroenterologist.
Even though I paid for traveler’s insurance, it was denied over a technicality, and I received a hospital bill for $17,000. My income is fixed and limited, and this charge threatened to decimate my savings.
It goes without saying that if I had known beforehand my bill was going to cost this much, I would have refused treatment and toughed it out. But I received no cost information from the hospital.
The bill included a particularly egregious $11,000 charge for a CT scan, around ten times more than the cash rate for a CT scan at an imaging center in the state.
The hospital ignored my requests to explain this overcharge and sent my bill to collections, threatening my assets and credit score.
Only after CBS News covered my story did the hospital agree to settle my bill for $4,500. That figure didn’t include additional radiology and physician bills.
SB 5493 can protect patients like me. Upfront prices empower us to choose affordable care; the $1,100 CT scan instead of the $11,000 one. Price transparency corrects the power imbalance between hospitals and patients, allowing us to become discerning consumers; just as we already are everywhere else in the economy.
It’s unfair that American patients have to open health care bills with — as one CBS host put it — shaking hands. Patients have the right to protect their financial health while maintaining their physical health. With price transparency, we can budget for care and confidently seek it without worrying about being financially devastated.
Compliance with existing federal law for hospital price transparency measures has been poor, so state legislation and state enforcement are needed to finally reveal prices to consumers.
Robust price transparency will help Washington’s employers and economy as well as its patients. With upfront prices, employers can steer employees to high-value care, avoid overbilling, and design affordable health plans that keep premiums low. When businesses and workers can protect their earnings from excessive healthcare costs, they can spend more on activities that boost the local economy.
By encouraging hospital competition, price transparency will reverse the state’s runaway health care costs. SB 5493, which has passed the Senate and is now being considered in the House, is a crucial step toward fixing the broken health care system driving ordinary families into bankruptcy; and retirees here and abroad.
Pat Simmons is a retired U.S. postal worker from Washington state, living in Ecuador.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
