On Wednesday, January 10th, 2-time Grammy nominated break-out country music star Jelly Roll and 3-time Grammy-award winning musician Wyclef Jean team up with Grammy nominated Fat Joe for a powerful event in Washington, D.C. to advocate for a more affordable and equitable healthcare system through price transparency.
With Congressional leaders and government officials in attendance, the artists will shed light on the unconscionable injustices created when hospitals and insurers hide prices, which stifles competition and allows the industry to evade accountability for overcharges and price gouging. As part of the event, Fat Joe will serve as the emcee, while Wyclef Jean and Jelly Roll perform.
“The U.S. healthcare system is America’s sickness,” said Fat Joe. “Healthcare price transparency isn’t a partisan or complicated issue. It’s common sense. The only people opposed to it are healthcare industry interests profiting by keeping patients in the dark. Price transparency can protect patients, families, employers, workers, even our own government from healthcare overcharging and pricing fraud as it does everywhere else in the economy. Clear prices allow consumers to choose affordable treatments without worrying that routine care will result in overcharges and even bankruptcy. Price transparency holds hospitals and insurance companies accountable, forcing them to compete and lowering costs, improving healthcare access, quality, and outcomes.”
Fat Joe will also join Power to the Patients, affiliated organization Patient Rights Advocate, and employers from across the country in meetings with Congressional leaders urging them to seize the momentum and get healthcare price transparency legislation passed and sent to President Biden’s desk.
Background
- More than 100 million Americans are in medical debt, which is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States.
- More than 90% of Americans support healthcare price transparency, yet only 36% of hospitals comply with rules requiring them to disclose prices.
- When hospitals and insurers hide their prices, they can charge whatever they want. A recent report showed that prices vary prices varied by an average of 10 times for the same care within the same hospitals across different health plans and by an average of more than 30 times for the care at different hospitals within the same state.
- Just last month, a bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation to strengthen and expand healthcare price transparency requirements (S.3548).
- The Senate legislation built on a bill passed by an overwhelming majority in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier in the month (H.R.5378), which takes steps to empower patients to choose the best care at the lowest prices.
- The event with Jelly Roll, Wyclef Jean, and Fat Joe is part of the ongoing advocacy campaign that has helped grow momentum for legislative action on healthcare price transparency.
- The latest DC awareness campaign will include PSAs aired for three weeks on cable, broadcast, and digital media, as well as billboards in Union Station and across the city.
Founded in 2021, “Power to the Patients” is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to creating a more affordable and equitable healthcare system through price transparency. For years, hospitals and insurers have been disregarding rules requiring them to disclose prices to patients in advance of care. Patients, families, workers, unions, and employers need systemwide healthcare price transparency to make fully informed decisions about the cost and quality of their care. All healthcare consumers have the right to upfront prices, and it’s time for our elected officials to stand up to industry profiteers by passing legislation to enforce price transparency for hospitals and insurers. Our Health. Our Money. Power to the Patients. Additional information and PSAs at powertothepatients.org.
