Americans deserve to know healthcare prices before the final bill arrives

In an era of political gridlock, at least one clear area of bipartisan common ground continues to exist — the desire for real healthcare price transparency. In fact, a 2025 poll showed 96% of Americans across the political spectrum are in favor of the commonsense idea that you deserve to know the price of healthcare before receiving it. And finally, tangible progress is being made in both chambers of Congress to build upon numerous executive orders and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rules and make healthcare price transparency the law of the land.

But why is healthcare price transparency so important?

First, healthcare price transparency is a needed initial step to fix the broken healthcare market. It allows for better, more accurate price signals, empowering patients with key information that allow them to shop for non-emergent healthcare goods and services. It also puts public pressure on care providers to justify prices, which may or may not be reasonable. I say let the market work. Ultimately, this drives up competition, which — in turn — lowers prices. In every other industry, we’ve seen this benefit the American consumer — why not healthcare?

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And it is no question that competition driven by transparency is needed. Currently, prices for the exact same procedure can range nearly 10-times, and even the same procedure within a given hospital can have wildly different prices based on backroom negotiations and often arbitrary price tags. But the problem is amplified when the prices not only differ within and across hospitals but are secret to those receiving, and ultimately paying for, the care until the bill arrives weeks to months later. With over 40% of Americans with healthcare debt and more than 40 million Americans on high-deductible health insurance plans, the opaque nature of healthcare billing is simply unacceptable.

Second, we spend about one in every five dollars is spent on healthcare in our economy. That’s a huge amount of money -– about $5.3 trillion. But inherently spending so much money on healthcare isn’t bad — the better question is: what do we get for the money we spend?

We don’t know.

And a large proportion of our country’s spending is healthcare coverage, including over 150 million Americans who have insurance through their employers. Healthcare is one of the largest costs for employers, if not the largest. But even they don’t know what they get for the money they spend for their employees, nor do they know the price tag of healthcare goods and services up front. And are their employees healthier?

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Healthcare price transparency can improve employer plan management and strategy, removing one element of the “healthcare unknown” and eliminating bureaucratic and inefficient frustrations and waste. The focus for employers can then move to demanding insights on quality of care, a logical next step to build upon price transparency. Healthcare price transparency is a signal that secrecy within healthcare will no longer be tolerated. By marrying both transparent prices and the push for transparency around the clinical outcomes most important to patients, employers can ensure they are getting the most value for their money spent.

And this doesn’t just help employers. Savings on employer health insurance plans mean more money in employee pockets through higher take-home wages not spent on coverage. With a family of four spending about $27,000 per year on health insurance, that’s a lot of money families across America desperately need.

Lastly, healthcare price transparency efforts will not only help everyday Americans today but accelerate innovation. When competition exists, innovation follows, as organizations try to differentiate themselves and get an edge over our competitors. From care delivery model improvements, including the use of AI, to entrepreneurs making the healthcare price transparency data easier for everyday Americans to quickly digest, the possibilities are numerous.

Not only does healthcare price transparency give power back to the healthcare consumer, but the data on savings are clear. Studies demonstrate the potential savings are in the billions of dollars, with one study from the University of Minnesota estimating savings between $17 billion to $80 billion. Another study from Brown University estimates about $120 billion (with a plausible range of $25 billion to $270 billion) of savings over time.

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The evidence continues to grow in support of healthcare price transparency. It’s a bold, necessary start in “fixing” healthcare. So, now Congress must act.

It is past time for healthcare price transparency to be the law of the land, not just a collection of executive orders and CMS rules. And nearly all of America agrees.

The opinions, thoughts, and ideas expressed in this article are those of the authors only and not necessarily those of any employers or institutions of which they are affiliated.