A new effort calls on lawmakers to address high health care costs with a range of solutions. Northwest Health Law Advocates, Economic Opportunity Institute, Patient Coalition of Washington and more than a dozen consumer groups, advocacy organizations, business leaders, and labor unions have joined forces to address the significant burden placed on Washingtonians by skyrocketing health care prices. Fair Health Prices Washington is a new effort targeting key aspects of unaffordable health care by advancing several proven data-driven policy options in Olympia this session.
For week 5 of the legislative session, we offer an update on how three of our priority bills are doing.
Health Care Cost Transparency Board. Last week, the House Health & Wellness Committee heard testimony on HB 1508/SB 5519, improving the authority and capacity of the state’s Health Care Cost Transparency Board (HCCTB), created in 2020 and charged with setting a health care spending benchmark. The bill would ensure the HCCTB monitors how high health prices are impacting consumers and hold health systems accountable for repeat outlier prices. There was significant opposition to the bill from members of the health care industry, but many more Fair Health Prices WA supporters testified and signed in as pro, including several state agencies, AARP, and Washington State Labor Council.
During her testimony, NoHLA’s Emily Brice described a “lightbulb” moment, “We can’t make real change on affordability unless we get at the root cause of why costs are going up for consumers each year, and that means looking at the underlying price drivers.” Brice said the bill takes two steps forward, “First, it puts consumers back at the center of our health care spending dialogue–we need to remember that the health system exists to serve patients and consumers, not the health care industry. Second, it gives the state tools to hold health entities accountable if their prices are repeatedly out of line.” Brice said the bill is similar to what has already been enacted in Massachusetts, Oregon, and California. Access the full hearing or Fair Health Prices WA’s press release and policy overview.
Prescription Drug Affordability Board. That same day, House Health & Wellness heard testimony on HB 1269, supporting the state’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board (PDAB) that was passed last year. The bill will increase the number of drugs subject to oversight, speed up the timeline for affordability reviews and upper payment limits, and remove pharmaceutical industry representatives from PDAB advisory groups. Pharmaceutical manufacturers and trade groups testified in opposition, but many patient and consumer groups supporting Fair Health Prices WA voiced their support, including Washington Community Action Network.
Patient Coalition of Washington Executive Director Jim Freeburg was among the many supporters who urged the members to acknowledge three things, “that life saving drugs are priceless, we need those to survive,” “no matter what, we’ll make sure people have access to the medication they need to survive,” and most importantly, “there must be a limit of the price by a profit seeking entity for a life-saving drug.” Access the full hearing or Fair Health Prices WA’s policy overview.
HB 1508 and HB 1269 are both scheduled for executive session in House Health & Wellness tomorrow (February 10th) at 8 am.
Fair Contracting Practices. On January 27th, the Senate Health & Long Term Care Committee heard testimony on HB 1379/SB 5393, to address affordability by preventing common anti-competitive practices and direct the AGO and OIC to study anti-competitive behavior. Many health system representatives testified in opposition, but there were supporters, including NoHLA’s Emily Brice who testified that current antitrust law is not enough to protect patients from unfair price increases as a result of consolidations. Referring to a recent court case between Premera and The Everett Clinic where the court could not stop a price hike, Brice said “something is wrong when a national corporation can buy up a local doctor’s practice and force a big rate increase overnight. That hurts consumers who face the price increases in their out-of-pocket costs.”
Washington State Office of Insurance Commissioner Senior Health Policy Advisor Jane Beyer also testified in support, saying that the network access rules in Washington state make it possible for large health care systems to leverage their market power because they know the carrier is required to have certain must-have facilities, such as a rural hospital or a neonatal intensive care unit. “We are required by state law to review network access rules and we have seen the anti-competitive provisions in contracts that would be prohibited under this bill.” Beyer testified that the bill would “help to balance contract negotiations and address affordability.”
The average commercial health insurance premiums in Washington for a single person increased by 49% between 2010 and 2020, according to Senior Advisor for Health Policy for Purchaser Business Group on Health Bill Kramer. “The root cause of this is the lack of healthy competition, among hospitals, physicians and other providers, this is largely due to enormous consolidation in the health care industry in recent decades.” This bill “simply establishes guardrails for fair market negotiations so that large health systems often acting as near monopolies can’t simply use their size and negotiating power to extract high prices from employers, consumers and patients.” Access the full testimony and Fair Health Prices WA’s policy overview.
Learn more about the policy solutions Fair Health Prices WA is supporting and visit our new website!