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Commercial Sector Prices

Visiting the hospital or doctor’s office should not be a devastating blow to the family budget.

Increased consolidation among providers over the past few decades is driving up costs, which has put a severe strain on family finances and added higher costs for employers and the government. Charges and fees often appear inflated, and the U.S. pays top dollar for almost every service when compared with other countries.

In order to improve affordability and access to high-quality care, we seek to lower the prices paid for hospital and physician services. We are working to protect patients and payers from surprise bills, develop approaches to reduce the prices charged by providers with strong market power, and investigate and expose anti-competitive practices in the market. This would help lower the out-of-pocket costs and premiums consumers face.

Image: Photo by Sue Ogrocki/The Associated Press

40%
Proportion of U.S. adults who can’t afford a $400 emergency bill
18%
Proportion of hospital admissions that include at least one claim from an out-of-network provider
90%
Proportion of the health care provider market that is highly or super concentrated
4 in 10
Proportion of U.S. adults with health insurance who say they have difficulty affording their deductible