Patient Fairness Act

Sixty percent of the bankruptcies in the United States are caused by excessive healthcare costs.  1 to 1.5 million people go bankrupt in the United States annually. Consumers cannot see the costs that they will be charged by hospitals prior to their care.  On average, the amount that hospitals get reimbursed by Medicare is seventy percent less than what they charge Medicare.  Eighteen percent of GDP is spent on healthcare.  Twice that of any other country.  Everything else that we buy as consumers we are able to shop for - but not healthcare.  The debate has been centered on insuring the uninsured.  Yet, the costs that hospitals have charged has been opaque.  The recent release of CMS data on the top 100 procedures is the tip of the iceberg. Let's change this with this petition to elevate the conversation in the media, propose state and federal legislation and bring this issue to the front and center.  

The main tenants of the legislation would contain the following: 

• hospitals can not sue patients or their families

• hospitals are required to post their chargemaster for every charge in their hospital on their website

• hospitals that receive payment in any form from the federal government or state government are required to post their financial statements on their website and include the salaries of their executives. 

According to the US Census Bureau, there are 206,072,000 Americans eligible to vote as of February 2012.   Imagine what would be possible if every American eligible to vote signed this petition.
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