Would you support a harsher punishment for hospitals that fail to comply with federal laws requiring full price transparency?

👍 Yes (83%) – "I cannot understand why there are not fixed costs on any kind of medical service. If you need a strep throat test, the cost should be a flat rate no matter what insurance you have or if you even have any insurance at all. And the cost of what the insurance pays should be set instead of negotiated."

• "While I understand that doctors and other hospital workers deserve their salaries, I do think it is the patient's right to see itemized lists of what they're paying for. Nearly every other service does the same thing, and I'm sure insurance companies require it, so why not pass that on to the recipient?"

"It should be easier to shop around. And if you don't have insurance, you should be eligible to pay a lower price. Everyone knows the "sticker" price is just made up."

• "Remove the hidden cost connection between insurance and care providers: force providers to post their prices (like hospitals are now supposed to do) and force insurers to post their payouts for the same procedures/services; everyone pays out of pocket for services and only gets reimbursed by insurance. We shouldn't need a computer to figure out where to go for the best care for the best price."

👎 No (10%) – "Let's see who complies and enforce the law first before increasing penalties. Remember, there are still small players out there and we need them to remain independent of the larger healthcare machines."

• "Clearly the problem is not the amount of the fine, it's the ENFORCEMENT. The AMA lobby is powerful in this country and they most certainly do NOT want people to have any transparency in what is going on with medical costs."

🤷 Unsure/other (7%) – "While it is a good idea to be transparent with patients on how much their care will cost, this is a bandaid solution to a problem that is rotten at its core. It is not the hospitals themselves but the insurance company system which have caused our inflated our healthcare costs higher than any other modern nation. Until there is at the bare minimum a government funded, comprehensive public option for healthcare to compete against these companies, they will continue to mark up the prices as needless middle-men between doctors and patients."