Steven Brill, JD, journalist and author of the incendiary Time article "Bitter Pill" that criticized hospital pricing practices, spoke before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday, saying the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would not significantly lower prices for patients.
Mr. Brill sat on a panel at the committee's hearing, joining Catalyst for Payment Reform Executive Director Suzanne Delbanco, PhD, Center for Studying Health System Change President Paul Ginsburg, PhD, and Castlight Health CEO and Co-Founder Giovanni Colella, MD.
Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) agreed with Mr. Brill's contention that although the law promotes much-needed transparency in healthcare prices, it does too little to push those prices down for consumers. "[Transparency] starts the conversation about prices that we didn't have in the debate over Obamacare. It's only a start," Mr. Brill said. "Obamacare does nothing about these prices. Nothing to solve the problem. Zero."
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