The people of South Carolina deserve transparency of cost for their healthcare. For people who are struggling with debt and can’t afford insurance, a surprise visit to the emergency room could cost them their home, car, or take away their food money. Even for the middle to upper class, health care costs can pose a huge problem, and be cause for constant worry. Getting proper health care should not cost a fortune.

I am calling for South Carolina senators to write and attempt to pass a bill that requires hospitals to disclose the amount of RVUs (RVU: relative value unit, a way of quantifying value for treatment) they assign to any life saving procedures or apparatus they may charge a patient for, and how much these RVUs convert to in dollars. The type of treatments that would be affected by this bill would be treatments that the patient needs to live such as chemotherapy, dialysis, organ transplants, and calcium blockers for high blood pressure. 

This should transfer into more competitive pricing from hospitals and doctors’ offices, driving prices down for consumers. Right now, the system we have allows hospitals to charge whatever they want, because the patient does not know the price before treatment. A reform like this would decrease the need for government funded Medicaid and Medicare, hopefully spurring other states into doing something similar. If we can get the United States on board, it would be putting even more money into Americans’ pockets.