Related Articles
Rick Ross, Chuck D, Busta Rhymes, Method Man, Fat Joe, and French Montana have teamed up for a new public service announcement demanding that lawmakers pass healthcare transparency bills that are working their way through Capitol Hill.
The rappers teamed with the non-profit organization Power to the Patients for the new PSA to advocate “for stronger and more meaningful price transparency laws” in order to force hospitals and insurance companies to post actual prices for their services and procedures.
“Today, we confront a health care system that has been rigged against all of us,” the rappers say in the PSA. “Hospitals force patients to sign contracts for services without ever showing us actual prices, stifling competition, overcharging without accountability, and if we can’t pay, these same contracts allow them to take everything we own.”
The system as it stands now creates “so much fear that millions and millions of Americans refuse to enter a hospital, putting our health and our lives at stake. This is an American humanitarian crisis. We love our nurses, and we need our doctors, but hospitals and insurers rigging a system to make profits off of people that are in struggle is unforgivable,” they added. “We demand prices and transparency in healthcare.”
Earlier this month, lawmakers in the House introduced a bipartisan bill — Lower Costs, More Transparency Act — that, if passed, would succeed in giving patients improved healthcare affordability. The bill would also include provisions from the PATIENT Act, which was introduced in May with the goal of having hospitals publicize their pricing, the Hill reported.
“Our bipartisan legislation meets this moment by giving patients what they are rightfully demanding: the ability to get the right care, at the right time, at a price they know and can afford,” Rep.Cathy McMorris Rodgers(R-Wash.), chairwoman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement.
“It will lower costs by giving patients the health care price information they need to make the decisions that are best for them and their families — something 95 percent of Americans support.”
