Pressured by those nervous that consumer-directed health care will not really get off the ground without a nudge from the state, the President and other conservative politicians are leaning towards forcing providers to disclose prices publicly and submit to government measures of quality.

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) has introduced the Hospital & Ambulatory Surgery Center Price Disclosure & Litigation Act (H.R. 4450) that will protect hospitals from lawsuits related to the prices they charge patients, provided they agree to prices beforehand. Furthermore, the facility must disclose the prices it charges Medicare or private insurers for the same procedures. An even more restrictive bill is the Hospital Price Reporting and Disclosure Act (S. 1827) introduced by Senators Jim DeMint (R-SC), Richard Durbin (D-IL), and John Cornyn (R-TX), and its companion legislation in the House, H.R. 3139, sponsored by Representatives Bob Inglis (R-SC) and Dan Lipinski (D-IL). This measure would simply require all hospitals to post the prices they charge, for the most common procedures and most frequently administered medications, on a website run by the Department of Health & Human Services.

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