This Bill Could Shine Light Into The Dark Recesses Of U.S. Health Care

From 2018 to 2021, the annual spending of America's predatory healthcare system will increase by 20%, from $3.6 billion to $4.3 billion.

In 2018, one of my favorite commentators wrote of the system: "Which drives the costs...lack of transparency, layoffs, over-regulation and continued consolidation."

In June 2023, the HAST Act, HR 3561, was unanimously approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

It's consistent. In a refreshing version of the bipartisan agreement, committee members from both political parties voted in favor.

One of the hallmarks of HR3561 is its promise to uncover some of the dark, rotten holes in American healthcare, shining a light on the places where profiteers and parasites thrive.

The proposed legislation, led by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers, Republican of Washington, and Rep. Frank Palo, Democrat of New Jersey, passed recently and has been aggressively undermined by the Biden and Trump administrations' transparency demands on the government. towards hospitals and insurers.

Just imagine someone in Washington is outraged that the top predators of the healthcare system – including hospitals, insurers, pharmaceutical intermediaries and supply chains – are hiding something from the American public. Could the lack of price transparency have played a role in the years of healthcare inflation?

Consider hospitalization costs. They represent the largest cost of our health care, about 31% of the trillions spent each year. However, hospitals have been able to hide the financial deals they make in their contracts with insurance companies, even though they willfully suffer from the problems funded by the country's taxpayers.

Is it too much to do a little research on how taxpayers' money is spent?

In the world of prescription drugs, Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) are the powerful middlemen who determine which drug insurance companies will cover. Their misunderstood role in the senseless waste of American health care is too large and complex a subject to elaborate here. You might recognize the names of the big PBMs—CVS Caremark, Optum, and Express Scripts are the big three. More than a few people think PPE deserves a place of honor in the Health Benefits Hall of Fame.

HR 3561 also targets PPE, threatening their illegal provision of legitimate "rebates" similar to kickbacks received by pharmaceutical manufacturers, contributing to inflationary pressures.

However, HR 3561 goes further by trying to clarify what belongs to what.

How many people realize that the number of doctors who have been practicing for years is rapidly decreasing?

Most doctors became controlled employees of hospital corporations, private equity firms and the PBM insurance complex.

It doesn't take a very knowledgeable reader to see the level of conflict of interest and illegality in these arrangements, for which the term “affiliation” may not be too strong. Does anyone really think that the Hippocratic oath and the interests of the sick can trump the interests of corporate shareholders?

But let's face it. HR 3561 does not blow up this country's increasingly consolidated and corporatized health care, a fact that helps explain how the bill has received bipartisan support.

More light is needed to reveal the prohibitive mess created by the basic economic regulations imposed on the health care industry by the previous Congress.

There is this strange article of faith among the dark idealists of our nation. They believe that members of government should not act for themselves and their cronies, but for the citizens and the greater public good.

HR 3561 is a bouquet launched to exhaustion.

Please take a few minutes to let your representatives in Congress know that their support for this bipartisan legislative package will help drown out the stench often associated with the bodies they serve. Encourage them to approve the bill. So rush to smash your senators and get the job done.

Perhaps once the light comes on and transparency reigns, the American Congress will clearly see something that will begin to sterilize the dark, rotten cesspool system that has been stolen from the American people.

Marion Mas, MD is a Bucks County pediatrician and co-founder of Practitioners of America , a leader in the Free2Care movement .

This article originally appeared in the Bucks County Courier Times: PPE can ensure compliance with these US health care laws.

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