Voters in Palo Alto and Livermore, Calif., defeated union-backed ballot initiatives over healthcare provider charges, the East Bay Times reported.
The initiatives, measures F and U, sought to place a 15 percent cap on the amount healthcare providers can charge patients above direct care costs.
Seventy-seven percent of Palo Alto voters and 82 percent of Livermore voters rejected their city's respective measure, according to the report.
Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West sponsored both initiatives.
Union spokesperson Sean Wherley argued in The Stanford Daily the measure would provide accountability for local healthcare providers.
"This is about transparency [and] letting people understand how much [they] are being charged, and why [they] are being charged so much more than the clinic down the street or in the neighboring community," he told the publication. "This is our chance as an organization to get healthcare costs under control."
Those opposed to the measures, such as the California Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, Stanford (Calif.) Health Care and Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, said they would hurt healthcare quality and access.
Savings from the measures would go directly to insurance companies, and hospitals would have to cut services if they passed, partially due to reimbursement pressures, opponents of the initiatives said.
The city councils of Livermore and Palo Alto also opposed the measures.
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