The Fight Against American Healthcare - Connor Robinson

Connor Robinson 

Science Writing 

 

The Fight Against American Healthcare 

         The American health care system has been consistently criticized over the years and has created controversy over how people are being treated. I have heard many stories from social media and from people around me about the terrible interactions and situations they have had when dealing with a health issue. Fortunately, for myself, I have not had a bad issue with the health care system. This sounds great but comes with the downside of not having a good essay to write for this. For the couple days that I spent thinking of ideas, I was inspired by an Instagram post from the UFC Heavyweight Champion, Jon Jones. Jones talks about the unfair treatment from the healthcare system and how it is “so greedy that hospitals and insurers hide their actual prices so they can charge us whatever they want” (Jon Jones). Jon Jones collaborated with the Power to the Patients campaign which aims at providing more transparency about the costs that hospitals charge. To understand more about the corrupt tendencies of the American healthcare system, I decided to research more about this campaign.  

The Power to the Patients campaign is a movement advocating for healthcare price transparency. It wants to ensure that patients can access their costs for medical procedures and services to fully understand what they are being charged for. The push for hospitals to disclose real prices allows individuals to make smarter and well-informed choices about their health. The Power to the Patients campaign uses activists and public figures, as shown before, to help raise awareness. They also have a section on their website where you can actually send them your own story about troubles with healthcare and prices in hospitals. It is currently the law for hospitals to post the prices of their services online. However, Power to the Patients Website states that “most hospitals are not complying” (powertothepatients.org). This is the main issue that this campaign deals with and one that has flown under the radar for too long.

Since the law was made, hospitals have been using deceitful techniques to mask their prices and make it harder for the average person to find them. John Xuefeng Jiang of Michigan State University explored this issue and described some of these methods that hospitals have been using. One of which was that some hospitals bury their pricing information on their website and make it difficult to find. This can be dangerous for anyone, but especially for older individuals with less experience with technology. Another issue with hospital prices was that “the commercial prices for the same procedure vary widely across hospitals and within the same hospital” (Xuefeng Jiang). The difference in price from different hospitals can maybe be explained by the price difference in services. The same cannot be said for the price difference in the same hospital as the same resources and services are being used. These inconsistencies are unfair to any patients that receive these services. The last and frankly most harmful method that hospitals use is to not post their prices at all. In a study from March 2021 that randomly sampled 100 hospitals, it was found that “only 33% reported the negotiated commercial prices for some services” (Gondi). Hospitals would rather take the penalty for noncompliance than post their prices online. If that does not show that there is a huge issue with the healthcare system currently, then nothing will. 

Hospitals should not be allowed to exploit patients with hidden and inconsistent pricing. The Power to the Patients campaign helps raise awareness of this issue, but more needs to be done. The techniques used by hospitals to avoid and manipulate these laws need to be criticized more and scrutinized. Supporting campaigns like Power to the Patients is a good start in dealing with this issue. As well as educating oneself about the prices that hospitals charge and how to find them. The healthcare system has been corrupted and broken for too long. With increased awareness and new laws put in place, the endless stories of people being screwed over need to be ended once and for all. 

  

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited 

Gondi S, Beckman AL, Ofoje AA, Hinkes P, McWilliams JM. Early Hospital Compliance With Federal Requirements for Price Transparency. JAMA Intern Med. 2021;181(10):1396– 1397. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.2531 

Jiang JX, Krishnan R, Bai G. Price Transparency in Hospitals—Current Research and Future     Directions. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(1):e2249588. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen 

Power to the Patients. "Take Action." Power to the Patients, https://www.powertothepatients.org/take-   action. Accessed 12 Feb. 2025.

  

  

  

 

 

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