The headlines coming out of Washington are scary and getting worse by the day.

The threat of hundreds of millions of dollars of funding cuts to vital health care and medical research programs are a clear and present danger to our health system and the millions of New Yorkers who count on it to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.

As devastating as these potential funding cuts could be, they’re not the only danger we face. Right here in New York, large and wealthy hospital systems are robbing Peter to pay Paul — and that means they are charging you and me excessive prices for routine medical services, making health care even more unaffordable than it already is.

The looming funding cuts from Washington and already outrageous prices from hospitals mean that New York workers — who already struggle with the high cost of living — may be left holding the bag.

As leaders of unions that represent hundreds of thousands of workers across the public and private sectors, our members rely every day on access to health services from the mundane to the life-and-death variety. But that access is jeopardized by head-scratching pricing practices where patients are being charged much, much more, for the exact same service just because a hospital owns the building in which that service is performed.

The impact of this trend on workers, families, businesses and municipal and state level government budgets is profound. A recent study conducted by the Brown University School of Public Health found that hospitals in New York are charging a whopping four times more than doctors’ offices for the same low-complexity procedures.

Things like flu shots, MRIs, an IV-drip for dehydration, all cost substantially more — an average of $452 at outpatient facilities compared to just $108 at a doctor’s office — when a hospital owns the building where your doctor practices.

In fact, we’re even seeing hospitals make money while we sleep, by charging 13 times more for a home sleep study. And because of extra facilities fees for virtual telehealth visits, hospitals make money without you ever stepping inside their building. Paying 25 times more for an IV bag if you’re dehydrated or $160 more for your kid’s annual flu shot is egregious, insulting and wildly unfair.

That’s where the Fair Pricing Act (FPA) comes into play. Introduced by state Sen. Liz Krueger and Assemblymember Chantel Jackson, the FPA would help level the playing field by capping the prices for routine health care services at the same prices paid in the lower cost “doctor’s office” setting. This would ensure that these low-complexity services don’t cost New Yorkers arbitrarily higher prices solely as a result of hospital market power and health care consolidation.

The benefit of this legislation is that it would almost immediately help lower health benefit expenses for payers, like employers and government entities, and also make health care more affordable for patients.

In fact, if the FPA had been the law in New York, the Brown University study found that health care costs would have been more than $1 billion lower in 2022, and patents would have enjoyed a savings of more than $213 million in out-of-pocket expenses.

Despite clear health care access and affordability concerns with the current system, patients have practically nowhere else to go to meet their medical needs because almost 60% of doctors offices are now owned by hospitals or corporations. That’s why it’s so important that Albany leaders support and pass into law the FPA.

Without the protections this bill offers and with no alternative to paying these higher prices for the services for which they paid much less at their doctor’s office, this pricing system will continue to be a real albatross on our entire health care delivery infrastructure.

We’ve all seen or had friends or family members experience the horror of skyrocketing medical bills. For working families, having to decide whether to go into medical debt to pay mounting bills or not pay their rent, shop for groceries or afford any of the other rising cost of living expenses is just an unfair burden and unnecessary insult to their ability to support their families.

A commonsense approach, like the Fair Pricing Act, to put money back into people’s pockets by reducing hospital prices is just what the doctor ordered. We just need our lawmakers in Albany to deliver the prescription that’s best for our members and all New Yorkers.

Pastreich is president of 32BJ SEIU. Garrido is executive director of District Council 37. Maroko is president of the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council. Davis is president of the Professional Staff Congress at CUNY.

https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/05/03/health-care-pricing-must-be-fair-in-n-y/