Your article "Hospitals Find Way to Make Care Cheaper—Make It Better" (page one, Oct. 6) addresses a serious problem that deserves a bipartisan solution, and I'm happy to report that it may be getting one.

Knowing the facts about health-care pricing empowers consumers to make decisions that produce better care and lower costs. If you're not from Pennsylvania, however, you're probably deciding in the dark. Insurance companies, government-run health programs and health-care providers generally don't provide per-service prices to patients prior to providing care. Consequently, consumers rarely know the amount of money they will be asked to pay until they hear about it much later from the insurer.

On Sept. 23, Reps. Michael Burgess, Gene Green, Bart Stupak and I offered an amendment to change that practice by introducing transparency to health-care pricing. We got the support of every Democrat and Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Until the entire Congress gets on board, however, absence of information will continue to harm patients and distort the overall functioning of a health-care market which, like any other, relies on rational individual purchasing decisions to reward the efficient and penalize the inefficient.

Rep. Joe Barton (R., Texas)
Washington

Rep. Barton is the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.


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