If you have a high deductible health insurance plan, then you've been in this situation. You need to see a provider (doctor, therapist, urgent care, hospital, surgery, etc...), but how much will it cost you? You call around, no one can tell you. You even call your insurance company, but they can't and won't tell you. 

Let's make it legally mandatory for health insurance companies to disclose the costs of services and procedures to you, the customer/patient, before you have the service. It is unethical and immoral to force someone to buy something at an unknown and unknowable cost and then be stuck paying the bill no matter how much it is, with no recourse. 

There is no other business that operates this way. You don't buy groceries with no price tags, check out, and then get charged some amount and are told you can't return any of the items. We are told to be informed consumers, but how can we do that without knowing how much things cost? We are told the information on the insurance companies' fee schedule are proprietary, but you are the customer, so ultimately it cannot be proprietary to you. 

Here is the letter I wrote to New York Sate Senator Ranzenhofer. I encourage you to sign this petition, and if you live outside of NY State, to email your state senator a similar message, because this is a national problem, and we deserve the information we need to make informed health care decisions. 

---

Good afternoon Senator Ranzenhofer,

I am a nearly life-long resident of Rochester, NY. I, like many others, have a high deductible health insurance plan. Mine is through Excellus. I called Excellus recently to see how much it would cost to go see a particular provider. I had a billing code from the provider, and assumed I'd be able to get an accurate cost estimate. They told me they were not able to tell me what any service costs up-front, and that the only way for me to find out how much I would pay is to have the service and run the claim. I filed a complaint and got a letter back stating "our representatives are contractually unable to quote a cost from our fee schedule". That, I have to say, is backwards, and unethical. There is no product that anyone buys for an unknown and unknowable price, and then be absolutely stuck paying it once they get their bill. I petition you to make or change the New York State law pertinent to the oversight of health insurance companies (because they all do this--Excellus is not unique) to mandate that they share relevant cost information with their members. I understand that their fee schedules may be proprietary, but I am the paying customer, so it cannot be proprietary to me. I look forward to hearing from you that you received my message and would love to further discuss this issue with you or your staff. I am available to come and testify before the NYS Health Committee in Albany as well. Please, hear me, I am not alone in this. This seriously affects the lives of your constituents.

Thank you,
Anna Ka