Statement from Cynthia A. Fisher, Founder and Chairman of PatientRightsAdvocate.org, on the Transparency in Coverage Final Rule

President Trump's final health insurance price transparency rule is a major victory for all Americans. By allowing healthcare consumers to compare coverage alternatives based on prices and quality, this rule will reduce runaway health insurance costs and spur innovation.

Combined with Trump's already-finalized hospital price transparency rule, the insurance order will usher in systemwide healthcare price transparency that will unleash a functional and competitive healthcare market, greatly reducing rampant waste, middle players, and price gouging. All Americans will benefit in the form of lower healthcare and coverage prices, higher wages, and a more productive economy. It will allow for much broader competition across customers, across plans, and across the country.

Healthcare price transparency will follow the precedent set by airline deregulation a generation ago. After airline prices were deregulated in 1978, a free and competitive airfare market emerged, reducing prices by approximately 50 percent, while improving quality, safety, and access. Travelers were able to shop around based on prices and quality. Economic and anecdotal evidence already indicate that healthcare price transparency can reduce prices by 30 to 50 percent.

Like airline competition today, systemwide healthcare price transparency will usher in a competitive market where hospitals and health insurers compete to attract patients' dollars. Trump's price transparency rules will revolutionize American healthcare like price deregulation did for air travel, allowing healthcare consumers to protect their health and wealth.