To Tackle Rising Healthcare Costs, McCaskill Seeks Transparency

WASHINGTON, March 2 -- The office of Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, issued the following news release:

Continuing her efforts to tackle rising healthcare costs facing Missourians, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill joined a bipartisan group of Senators in seeking answers and information from doctors, hospitals, insurers, and advocacy groups working to bring transparency to healthcare costs.

"Every day, Missouri families are struggling to deal with higher and higher healthcare costs--and most often, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason behind them, and folks don't even know what they'll be charged until the bill comes," McCaskill said. "Missouri families and businesses working to figure out how to pay for healthcare deserve some honesty and transparency about where those costs are coming from."

McCaskill joined Republican Senators Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Todd Young of Indiana, and Democratic Senators Michael Bennet of Colorado and Tom Carper of Delaware in soliciting feedback and support for future efforts to enact price and information transparency legislation, empowering patients and improving quality care at lower costs.

"We all agree that healthcare costs are too high and now is the time to move towards a system that is more open, efficient, and accountable to the needs of the modern patient," wrote the bipartisan group of Senators. "One policy area that is ripe for opportunity is greater price and information transparency. When asked more specifically about their concerns with healthcare, nearly two-thirds of Americans say it is too difficult to find out what medical care costs."

McCaskill has made tackling rising healthcare and prescription drug costs in Missouri a top priority in the Senate. Just this week, McCaskill introduced legislation to end taxpayer subsidies pharmaceutical companies receive for the billions of dollars they spend on prescription drug advertising each year, which currently is fully tax-deductible. Additionally, McCaskill's bipartisan legislation with Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine to increase competition for generic drugs and help lower prescription costs was signed into law by President Trump.

Last month, healthcare and emergency room costs in Missouri and across the country were the focus of a roundtable discussion with McCaskill, ER doctors, patient advocates, and community health workers in Kansas City.

Full text of letter HERE (https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/download/healthcare-cost-transparency-letter).