{"id":195546,"date":"2026-04-13T15:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T15:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/195546\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T15:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T15:51:08","slug":"op-ed-to-tackle-affordability-we-must-have-fair-hospital-pricing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/195546\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-ed | To tackle affordability, we must have fair hospital pricing"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Last year, two out of every three New Yorkers delayed or went without healthcare care due to cost. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, hospital price inflation has risen over 100% since 2009\u2014far exceeding inflation in prescription drugs, housing, or food prices which have risen around 50% by comparison.<\/p>\n

Photo via Getty Images<\/p>\n

We are just four months into this year, but \u201caffordability<\/a>\u201d has already become the defining theme of 2026. Advocates and lawmakers across the state have continuously discussed solutions to the cost-of-living crisis in these initial months of our current legislative session.<\/p>\n

We have heard proposals to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers. We have seen suggestions to increase corporate taxes on financial and other major industries to generate revenue. And on the other side of the ledger, there are notable plans to ease the financial burden of rising utility bills, expand access to childcare, protect healthcare coverage for hundreds of thousands of working families, and provide relief to small businesses.<\/p>\n

These are just a few of the items being debated as part of the state budget process with the goal of addressing New York\u2019s worsening affordability crisis. While there are many proposals worthy of a full and robust debate, if the goal is to address the core drivers of New York\u2019s affordability crisis, there is a glaring omission: addressing rising hospital prices.<\/p>\n

Last year, two out of every three New Yorkers delayed or went without healthcare care due to cost. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,<\/a> hospital price inflation has risen over 100% since 2009\u2014far exceeding inflation in prescription drugs, housing, or food prices which have risen around 50% by comparison. If we want to know why families, small businesses, and government budgets are struggling to manage the overwhelming burden of healthcare costs we do not need to look any further than the high and rising hospital prices driving that surge.<\/p>\n

The Fair Pricing Act<\/a>, a bill currently under consideration in Albany, could change that. It would be a much-needed step towards putting money back in people\u2019s pockets and saving state resources that could instead be used for schools, housing, transportation and other vital funding areas that are threatened by looming budget deficits.<\/p>\n

A report last year by Brown University\u2019s School of Public Health<\/a> found that the Fair Pricing Act would result in more than $1 billion in healthcare savings for New York, including a $213 million reduction in out-of-pocket expenses for patients. Those are savings that cannot be ignored and should not be left on the table.<\/p>\n

Just like the name suggests, the Fair Pricing Act delivers fair hospital pricing protections to millions of New Yorkers. Over the past two decades, wealthy hospital systems have bought up independent practices at an alarming rate leading to higher prices, an average of 4x more, for the same routine care provided before the practice was consolidated. This bill caps prices for routine medical services at 150% of the Medicare rate to align with the lower rates paid in doctors\u2019 offices. The Fair Pricing Act makes sure that routine services remain routine in price.<\/p>\n

Basic outpatient services like flu shots, x-rays, IV drips for dehydration, diagnostic testing, telehealth and in-person wellness visits that are increasingly costing patients, employers and government entities exorbitant amounts of money, would all see a significant and sustainable decrease in price.<\/p>\n

The Fair Pricing Act is intentional in its savings. The services included are identified by Medicare\u2019s payment advisory commission, only including routine, outpatient procedures that do not require a hospital stay. This bill includes sensible exemptions for safety net and public hospitals, as well as critical access facilities and federally qualified health centers. This would ensure proper protection is in place for financially challenged entities while targeting the unnecessarily high prices in hospital systems that have a large market share and significant reserves. Hospitals may have bought the market, but patients should not be expected to pay the price.<\/p>\n

A recent KFF poll<\/a> found that two-thirds of the public list healthcare costs as their top economic anxiety, and a majority expect that costs are going to continue to climb. If lawmakers are going to tackle our affordability crisis at its root causes, thenwe must bring down healthcare costs. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are at risk of losing their healthcare because of H.R.1, forcing them to purchase insurance from the marketplace, pay out of pocket for essential services, or forgo care entirely. When we discuss mitigating federal cuts, we must ensure that patients are protected, not just hospital systems. We must seize the moment and build momentum toward reigning in the high hospital prices that put affordable healthcare out of reach for far too many New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

The debate over how to make New York more affordable is arguably the most important conversation being had in the hallways of government right now. Just as families sitting down at a kitchen table with a pile of bills in front of them have to take an all of the above approach to make ends meet, our government leaders should be just as open, just as innovative, and just as thoughtful when it comes to exploring every policy that can make New York more affordable.<\/p>\n

We know that for healthcare, like other major cost drivers, such as housing, childcare and daily living expenses, we\u2019re dealing with a broken system. All we ask is that our leaders use every tool at their disposal \u2013 including fair hospital pricing protections \u2013 to help fix it.<\/p>\n

Misha Sharp from the 32BJ Labor Industry Cooperation Trust Fund (LICF), an organization dedicated to the exclusive purpose of containing healthcare costs, including healthcare pricing, for the benefit of 32BJ union members and employers in New York City and surrounding areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year, two out of every three New Yorkers delayed or went without healthcare care due to cost.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[13280,8012,40815,77973,77974,77975,77976,77977,77978,78,77979,10421,9,11,10,43742,77980,77981],"class_list":{"0":"post-195546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-affordability-crisis","9":"tag-cost-of-living","10":"tag-economic-inequality","11":"tag-fair-pricing-act","12":"tag-healthcare-affordability","13":"tag-healthcare-costs","14":"tag-healthcare-policy","15":"tag-hospital-consolidation","16":"tag-hospital-pricing","17":"tag-insurance-coverage","18":"tag-medicaid-and-medicare-rates","19":"tag-medical-debt","20":"tag-new-york","21":"tag-new-york-headlines","22":"tag-new-york-news","23":"tag-new-york-state-budget","24":"tag-outpatient-services","25":"tag-public-health-funding"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}