During the last legislative session our state legislature passed a bill to address out-of-network charges and surprise billing. The bill resulted from bipartisan cooperation, including our area legislators: Sen. Ray Scott and Reps. Janice Rich and Matt Soper. This bill promoted a solution without massive government intervention.
Legislation under consideration in Congress, however, would undermine Colorado’s reforms and instead implement government-mandated price controls, forcing doctors to perform procedures and services at a discount when a surprise medical bill is in dispute.
The medical payment system is already riddled with market distortions and price controls. And we see the results: providers avoid serving populations that are subject to price controls and/or shift costs to populations not subject to price controls. Therefore, patient populations subject to price controls inherently have less access to quality providers.
This dynamic is particularly acute in rural areas, since we have access to fewer providers to begin with.
Surprise medical bills are a real problem for Americans, but price controls are not the solution.
JJ Fletcher,
Palisade
