A nonprofit patient’s rights advocacy group has placed a billboard in New York City’s Times Square praising President Donald Trump for ‘delivering’ on a major healthcare promise within his first 100 days in office.
The billboard, placed by PatientsRightsAdvocate.org, (PRA) will run from April 28 to May 4 and touts Trump’s executive order signed in February directing the departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to make healthcare prices transparent.
‘President Trump delivers healthcare price transparency,’ the billboard, along with a picture of Trump resembling Superman says. ‘First 100 Days!’
Trump’s order directed the departments to ‘rapidly implement and enforce’ the Trump healthcare price transparency regulations, which he claims were slowed by the Biden administration.
The departments will ensure hospitals and insurers disclose actual prices, not estimates, and take action to make prices comparable across hospitals and insurers, including prescription drug prices.
PRA says that more than 1 in 3 Americans postponed or avoided care due to ‘fear of unknown costs’ and that 100 million Americans are in medical debt, which represents the country’s largest cause of personal bankruptcy.
‘The magnitude of President Trump’s delivering ‘radical’ price transparency in healthcare is historic,’ Cynthia Fisher, founder and chairman of PatientRightsAdvocate.org, said in a statement.
‘Patients soon will have access to actual prices, not estimates, before they receive care. Prices create a functional market where the consumer benefits from competition and choice to lower costs,’ Fisher continued. ‘Soon, patients will be able to shop for the best quality of care at the best price. Prices protect patients with remedy and recourse from overcharges, errors, and fraud. We are closer than ever to shifting the power to the consumer to live healthier and longer lives at a far lower cost.’
Andrew Bremberg, former assistant to President Donald Trump and director of the Domestic Policy Council at the first Trump White House, also touted Trump’s executive order, saying that the president ‘built on his first term healthcare legacy and signed an even stronger price transparency executive order.
‘His efforts to deliver real prices, not estimates, underscore his unwavering commitment to the American people. President Trump has a bold vision to transform the American healthcare system with price transparency as the catalyst.’
The executive order notes a number of concerns with current healthcare pricing, including that prices vary between hospitals in the same region.
‘One patient in Wisconsin saved $1,095 by shopping for two tests between two hospitals located within 30 minutes of one another,’ according to the statement.
The White House claims one economic analysis found Trump’s original price transparency rules, if fully implemented, could deliver savings of $80 billion for consumers, employers and insurers by 2025.
‘The hospital wanted me to pay $3,700 up front for a simple fibroid removal surgery,’ Arizona patient Theresa Schmotzer said in a statement at the time of the billboard’s placement. ‘Because that seemed high, I went looking for what it should cost. I found the actual price online and saw that my share was only $700 not $3,700. Because I had access to real prices, not estimates, I saved $3,000. President Trump’s executive order on healthcare price transparency will allow more people to find real prices and save.’
States across the country have been pushing similar measures in the form of legislation to ensure that patients are given more transparency about the healthcare costs they are assuming, including in Ohio, where legislation was recently signed into law requiring hospitals to post exact prices in dollars and cents for all available services.
‘They’ll be able to check them, compare them, go to different locations, so they can shop for the highest-quality care at the lowest cost,’ Trump wrote in a statement when he signed the executive order. ‘And this is about high-quality care. You’re also looking at that. You’re looking at comparisons between talents, which is very important. And, then, you’re also looking at cost. And, in some cases, you get the best doctor for the lowest cost. That’s a good thing.’
Fox News Digital’s Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
