Well, here’s something that should have happened years ago—President Donald Trump just signed an executive order forcing hospitals and insurance companies to actually tell you how much your healthcare is going to cost before you get the bill. Shocking concept, right? You’d think transparency in pricing would be common sense, but in the world of healthcare, it’s practically revolutionary.
The order directs the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to immediately start enforcing price transparency rules—rules that Trump originally put in place but were quietly ignored under Biden. Hospitals and insurers will now have to disclose actual prices—not vague estimates—and make them easily comparable across providers, including for prescription drugs.
And let’s be real: hidden healthcare prices are a goldmine for big hospitals and insurance companies. When patients can’t see what something costs upfront, they can’t shop around for the best deal. That’s how you end up with absurd situations like two hospitals, 30 minutes apart, charging wildly different prices for the exact same procedure. In one case cited by the White House, a Wisconsin patient saved $1,095 just by comparing two different hospitals.
Now, imagine that happening nationwide.
Trump’s original price transparency rules were projected to save $80 billion by 2025 if fully enforced. Employers, who foot much of the bill for healthcare in the U.S., could lower their costs by an average of 27% on 500 common services—just by shopping smarter.
And here’s where it gets even better. Trump pointed out that transparency doesn’t just lower costs—it actually improves healthcare quality.
“They’ll be able to check them, compare them, go to different locations, so they can shop for the highest-quality care at the lowest cost,” Trump said. “And this is about high-quality care. You’re also looking at that. You’re looking at comparisons between talents, which is very important. And, then, you’re also looking at cost. And, in some cases, you get the best doctor for the lowest cost. That’s a good thing.”
In other words, price transparency forces real competition—hospitals that overcharge for mediocre care will be exposed, and the best doctors offering fair prices will attract more patients. The winners? Consumers. The losers? Insurance companies and hospital monopolies that have been playing this rigged game for decades.
Americans are fed up with being blindsided by medical bills. A stunning 95% of people say price transparency is a priority, and more than 50% think it should be a top government priority. Meanwhile, hospitals and insurance companies have spent years fighting against transparency—because they know that once patients can compare prices, their ability to overcharge vanishes overnight.
Trump’s first-term executive order on healthcare pricing was a historic move, forcing hospitals and insurers to disclose their prices publicly for the first time. But under Biden, enforcement of those rules? Nonexistent. In fact, a lawsuit was even filed against the Biden administration in 2023 for failing to enforce transparency on prescription drug prices.
Now, with Trump back in charge, that changes.
