John,
Dealing with a health care bill is already stressful enough. It's worse when you don't know how much you'll pay for a procedure until after it's done.
Especially when you find out that you could have paid much less for the procedure at a different hospital.
But when health care pricing is hidden, or not even posted online, finding this info can be difficult, if not impossible.
That's why we're supporting the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act, which would require hospitals to provide clear price estimates before you end up owing more than necessary.1
Add your name and urge your U.S. senators to support this crucial bill today.
Right now, Americans are paying the price (literally) for a system that keeps us in the dark.
U.S. PIRG Education Fund's "Post the Price" report found that the self-pay cost of a total knee replacement in Cleveland could vary by more than $200,000 just depending on which hospital you use.2
The same knee replacement. But a $200,000 price difference between one hospital and another.
And that's just within the same city. But prices can even vary within the same hospital system.
That same study found that each location in the University Hospitals system charged a different amount for the same knee replacement. How much you may ask? Well, the most expensive hospital charged nearly double that of the cheapest.3
Patients are often completely unaware of this wild fluctuation in pricing. Instead you're left guessing, and often paying, much more than you need to.
Add your name and tell your U.S. senators to pass the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act today.
The Patients Deserve Price Tags Act would:
- Strengthen current hospital price transparency rules by requiring them to post clear dollar-and-cent prices.
- Expand price transparency to medical services offered by doctor visits, imaging centers and labs.
- Give businesses access to their own claims data so they can better manage costs, prevent hidden fees and provide affordable care to their employees.4
Together, these changes would make health care work a little more like other markets, where you know the cost upfront and, when possible, can choose the best option for you and your family.
After all, nobody should have to pay $200,000 more than necessary for a knee replacement.
Thank you,
Faye Park
President
1. "S.2355 - Patients Deserve Price Tags Act," Congress, July 17, 2025.
2. Maribeth Guarino, Tanion Misawa Yee, "Post the Price," U.S. PIRG Education Fund, May 21, 2024.
3. Maribeth Guarino, Tanion Misawa Yee, "Post the Price," U.S. PIRG Education Fund, May 21, 2024.
4. Melanie Vazquez, Isaac Bowers, "U.S. PIRG supports Patients Deserve Price Tags Act," PIRG, October 3, 2025
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