High health care costs lurk throughout the health care system – in premiums, deductibles and cost-sharing and the costs of treatment. Congress has two new proposals that would help to address these issues.

• A bipartisan group of Senators proposed the Protecting Patients from Surprise Medical Bills Act, which would help to address the issues of balance billing and “surprise” medical bills. The discussion draft would address treatment by out-of-network providers in out-of-network facilities. Individuals would be protected from paying more than in-network cost-sharing in the case of an emergency. And out-of-network facilities would be required to notify the patient, or their designee, of the potential for higher cost-sharing for additional non-emergency services following an emergency, and the opportunity to transfer to an in-network facility. Many Washington State residents receive surprise bills and there have been repeated attempts to pass consumer protections – the Insurance Commissioner, many legislators, NoHLA and many other organizations support this approach. We hope this will be the year! Meanwhile, we’re glad to see the issue rising to the federal level!
• Washington’s Senator Maria Cantwell introduced the Basic Health Program (BHP) Expansion Act of 2018 with NoHLA’s enthusiastic support. It would allow states with BHPs to expand income eligibility, and would authorize states newly seeking to implement BHP to use federal money for startup costs. Only two states, Minnesota and New York, have adopted Basic Health Programs–permitted under the Affordable Care Act and based on Washington’s former Basic Health Program. Washington has not yet adopted a federal BHP, but this legislation could remove a barrier to starting one.