The Black Chronicle wrote about the Axios event where lawmakers and industry leaders – including CAHC’s Joel White – called for greater price transparency and reforms in the health care industry to lower costs.
Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., and Joel White, president of the Council for Affordable Health Care Coverage, spoke at an Axios-hosted event on Thursday. The group pointed to issues with the current health care system and proposed breaking up insurance and hospital monopolies.
“We don’t have functioning markets anymore,” White said. “That’s a reult of decades of policies and market consolidation that rewarded size and scale and higher costs.”
White said insurance costs have increased dramatically for small business owners due to the Affordable Care Act. He called for a small business health care plan and expanding health savings accounts to reduce rising costs for businesses.
White estimated prices were rising as much as 20% in markets where hospital monopolies exist. He called on Congress to break up the entities and help reform price controls that use anti-competitive behavior.