The patient advocacy group Patients Rights Advocate is pressing President Trump to move quickly on healthcare price transparency, urging actions that would force clearer, upfront costs from hospitals and insurers and empower employers and patients to negotiate better deals. The group lays out specific asks—using the Department of Labor, supporting new legislation, and building on prior executive actions—to make prices visible and predictable. Backers say this approach will return control over healthcare spending to people and employers, not middlemen or private equity interests.
Patients Rights Advocate, a nonprofit focused on price transparency and quality, sent a direct appeal to the White House as officials consider a new healthcare proposal. The group argues that without straight prices, patients remain in the dark and employers cannot effectively push for lower costs. That lack of clarity feeds surprise bills and inflated charges across the system.
“You recently articulated a compelling vision: Americans, not insurance companies, should be in control of their healthcare dollars,” PRA founder Cynthia Fisher wrote in a letter to Trump Tuesday. “Empowering people directly is the most effective way to restore fairness, choice, and accountability to a system that has too long served corporate interests instead of the American people.” Those words sum up why advocates want swift administrative steps and legislative backing now.
The group recommended concrete administrative moves, including directing the Department of Labor to ensure employers get full access to claims and provider payments. With claims transparency, employers could audit fees, negotiate better contracts, and pass savings on to workers in the form of lower premiums or out-of-pocket costs. That kind of leverage is exactly what Republicans say will restore market discipline to healthcare pricing.
PRA also urged President Trump to back the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act, a bipartisan bill championed by Sens. Roger Marshall and John Hickenlooper. The measure would force hospitals to publish actual prices for roughly 300 common services and require itemized bills listing each separate charge. Supporters say itemization is critical so patients can see what they’re paying for and challenge bogus or duplicative fees.
“By doing this, you will deliver a system in which patients, employers, and unions–not the insurance and private equity fat cats–hold the power,” Fisher wrote in her letter. That line captures the political argument: transparency shifts power away from opaque middlemen and toward consumers and employers who demand value. It’s a winning message for Republicans who want to show practical solutions that make healthcare more affordable.
The request from PRA points to work the administration has already begun, including an executive order earlier this year that pushed Treasury, Labor, and HHS to enforce transparency rules requiring hospitals and insurers to disclose actual prices. Those moves aimed to stop guesses and estimates and make pricing more uniform across providers and payers. The administration can build on that foundation by pressing agencies to tighten enforcement and broaden data access.
Timing for a formal White House healthcare plan remains uncertain, with officials saying the issue is a priority but offering no firm release date. Republicans in Congress are also wrestling with whether to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of 2025, which complicates legislative choices. Still, transparency reforms have bipartisan appeal and could be advanced even as broader subsidy debates continue.
Voter sentiment appears to back stronger disclosure: a recent poll from a Republican-leaning firm found nearly 90 percent of respondents support rules that force hospitals and insurers to provide exact prices upfront. “The data I’ve seen is crystal clear: If President Trump executes on this affordability-action by forcing hospitals and insurers to reveal actual prices upfront, the American people will overwhelmingly support it,” David Kochel, a Republican campaign strategist, said in a statement to Fox News Digital Monday. That kind of public backing gives Republicans a clear policy and political opening on healthcare reform.
