Healthcare costs drive America’s growing national affordability crisis

Americans have delivered the same message in the last two elections: Make life affordable again.

As the cost of everything from housing to education to insurance continues to rise, they’re tired of working harder for less money. The affordability crisis affects every household, and its biggest driver is the issue Washington refuses to seriously address: health care.

Healthcare now consumes almost a fifth of our economy. It is the single largest cost to employers, the fastest-growing burden on families, and the quietest burden on national growth. Every dollar businesses spend on inflated healthcare costs is a dollar that can’t be used for higher wages, new jobs or investment. Every dollar families spend on premiums or out-of-pocket expenses is a dollar they can’t use toward savings, housing, or opportunities. Until we fix healthcare, We can’t fix affordability.

Washington isn’t ignoring health care; He thinks very narrowly about this issue. Politicians are obsessed with temporary subsidies, tax credits, and program expansions that make it more expensive to subsidize insurance but never make care more affordable. The current fight to expand COVID-era insurance subsidies is a perfect example. Even Obamacare supporters now acknowledge that the “Affordable” Care Act has become unaffordable. Their answer is to borrow more money to support an increasingly deteriorating system. This is not reform, it is surrender.

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There are three facts that both sides must face.

First, the system is already very expensive and locked into a structure that guarantees it will become more unaffordable every year.

Second, six decades of bureaucratic control—public and private—have completely failed to contain costs.

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Third, to achieve the change Americans want, we must build a new model that relies on patients, doctors, and employers, not massive government and insurance company bureaucracies.

This model is not theoretical; It already works for the rest of our economy. When people have access to clear prices and quality information before making decisions, competition fosters innovation, choice and lower costs. Technology has made this possible in every industry, from travel to retail and manufacturing. If the same principles were applied to healthcare, we could use the same power to reduce costs and improve quality.

Instead, our opaque bureaucratic system hides prices and proliferates intermediaries. The average family of four spends about $27,000 a year on health insurance; That’s about the cost of a new Chevrolet or Toyota every 12 months. Many families don’t see the full bill because their employers or the government foots it; but this means their salaries are lower. Paying the equivalent of a new car each year just for insurance coverage is why it’s among Americans’ top financial concerns.

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Worse, no one knows how much anything costs; Not patients, not families, not even the self-funded employers who pay plan members’ compensation. Invoices arrive months after maintenance, having passed through a maze of third-party administrators, repricers and billing providers. This privacy fuels waste, fraud and frustration. It is estimated that 30 percent to 50 percent of all healthcare expenditures are administrative rather than medical. In short, there are more middlemen than drugs in America’s healthcare system.

So who benefits? Powerful interest groups, insurers, consultants and bureaucracies who profit from complexity and confusion. As Tom Cruise shouts ““Jerry Maguire”: “Show me the money.” Behind the speeches and lobbyists defending this broken system are people determined to preserve their share of the bankrupt status quo.

Second, six decades of bureaucratic control—public and private—have completely failed to contain costs.

Politicians cannot fight every entrenched interest group; Only millions of patients and doctors with real price and quality information can do this. Transparency gives power back to those who actually provide and receive care. When they see what it costs, they can make smarter choices, reward efficiency, and hold wasteful players accountable. Transparency not only lowers prices, it changes who holds power.

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That’s why President Donald Trump’s price transparency executive order under his first administration was a real breakthrough. It required hospitals and insurance companies to publish negotiated prices and, through the No Surprises Act, directed officials to create Advance Disclosures of Benefits (AEOBs) so Americans could know their costs. before is receiving care. Trump started the transparency revolution. Under the Biden administration, oversight stalled and patients never saw the full benefit.

Now Trump has a chance to finish what he started and make transparency permanent.

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The administration is now authorized to act under the “radical transparency” executive order it issued earlier this year, the No Surprises Act, and existing Employee Retirement Income Security Act authority. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should immediately issue and enforce AEOB rules. The Department of Labor must guarantee employers access to all claims and pricing data while protecting patient privacy. If the administration acts quickly, Americans could start receiving AEOB in 2026, and Trump could rightfully claim a historic victory on transparency, competition, and higher wages before the midterms.

Congress should strengthen this effort by passing the bipartisan Patients Deserve Price Tags Act, led by Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall and Colorado Democratic Senator John Hickenlooper. The bill secures employer access to data and ensures that no third-party administrator can hide prices from people paying the bills. The executive branch can act today; Congress should make this permanent.

When every patient and employer can see prices, markets will clean up waste on their own. Transparency gives employers the power to negotiate directly with providers and patients the ability to choose wisely. Exposed prices create competition that middlemen cannot survive and costs they cannot hide. The ripple effect (lower costs, higher wages, more investment) will strengthen every aspect of the economy.

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If America truly wants to make life affordable again, healthcare transparency is where we start.

Brave. This can be achieved. And this is the biggest step we can take to restore prosperity for working families.

Disclaimer: Gingrich 360 has consulting clients in the healthcare industry that may be affected by changes in healthcare laws.

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