McCaskill Stresses Need for Greater Transparency in Medical Pricing

In a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee this week, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill praised recent progress in health insurance pricing transparency, but stressed that work remains to ensure that consumers are getting good information on the cost of surgery, treatment, and medical services.

“I’m a big believer that in the health care sector we need to unleash the American consumer,” McCaskill said. “We’ve got to figure out a way to make the consumer feel like they’re entitled to get better information about health care costs.”

Today’s hearing included witnesses from leading consumer and health policy groups, including Margaret O’Kane, President of the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

“It’s a mess,” said O’Kane, describing the difficultly of ascertaining the price of medical procedures.

The hearing examined how the Affordable Care Act’s Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC), Coverage Examples, and Uniform Glossary provisions have increased transparency in the health insurance market by standardizing and simplifying information used to purchase health insurance.  The SBC is helping consumers make “apples to apples” comparisons of health insurance plans.

“The health care law improved things a great deal, but we’ve got a lot more ground to cover to get consumers the information they need,” McCaskill said.

McCaskill was recently named Chairman of the Senate subcommittee with jurisdiction over consumer protection and product safety, and has served on the Senate Commerce Committee since joining the Senate in 2007.