Wisconsin Hospitals’ Price Problem

Wisconsin families and businesses are being squeezed by the rising cost of health care.

Unlike the taxes listed on a paycheck or receipt, this burden shows up through higher insurance premiums, deductibles, hospital bills, and employer health care costs. And despite federal transparency requirements, patients still face a health care system where determining the price of care before receiving it can be unnecessarily difficult.

The cost of that system is growing.

Hospital service costs in Wisconsin increased 274 percent between 2000 and 2025, according to an analysis highlighted by Wisconsin Public Radio. Median household income increased by roughly 90 percent over the same period.

Those costs do not stop with patients.

When businesses are forced to spend more on employee health coverage, there is less money available for wages, hiring, investment, and expansion. A recent University of Wisconsin-Madison report put it plainly: Rising health care costs effectively function as a pay cut for workers and a tax on employers.

Wisconsin Senate President Mary Felzkowski has made tackling those costs a priority.

One of her key proposals, the Price Transparency for Patients Act, would strengthen enforcement of hospital price transparency requirements in Wisconsin.

Federal laws already require hospitals to publicly disclose pricing information, including negotiated rates and discounted cash prices. But transparency requirements mean little if patients cannot easily access accurate pricing information or if the rules are not adequately enforced.

Felzkowski’s proposal would give the Wisconsin Department of Health Services authority to enforce federal hospital price transparency standards and publicly identify hospitals that fail to comply. Hospitals found not complying would also face restrictions on certain debt collection actions until they follow the law.

As Felzkowski has argued, Wisconsin’s transparency requirements need “more teeth.”

The Wisconsin Hospital Association has pushed back, arguing that federal transparency regulations already exist and additional state enforcement would create unnecessary regulatory burdens.

But requiring hospitals to disclose prices they are already supposed to disclose is hardly an unreasonable burden.

In nearly every other part of the economy, consumers expect to know what something costs before they buy it. Health care should not be an exception.

Price transparency alone will not solve every problem with America’s health care system. But competition cannot work when consumers and employers cannot meaningfully compare prices.

Wisconsin families should not have to wait for a hospital bill to learn what their care costs. Businesses should not have to absorb rapidly rising health care expenses without meaningful price information.

President Felzkowski is right to demand greater transparency and accountability.

Wisconsin Taxpayers are not an ATM. If hospitals expect Wisconsinites to pay the bill, Wisconsinites deserve to know the price.