If you like your doctor . . . tough

It’s happening every day.

Americans think they won’t face huge medical bills if they undergo medical treatment at a hospital that is within their insurance network.

But after their treatment they receive a bill for thousands of dollars because without their consent and knowledge, the hospital used a physician that is outside of their insurance network — so the insurance company won’t pay the bill.

This is known as surprise medical billing — and it’s happening every day.

Surprise medical bills are the result of government policies that have stripped individuals of their ability to be in control of their own health care, and instead have shifted that power over to bureaucrats, insurance companies, and health maintenance organizations. Now those groups can dictate what care you can receive and at a price you may not have agreed to pay.

The solution is obvious and simple: restore a free market in the health care industry by giving individuals control over their health care.

But of course, Congress is proposing to “solve” the problem of surprise medical bills with a cure that is even worse than the disease . . . price controls!

This week, the Democrat-led House and the Republican-led Senate agreed to a deal on surprise medical bills that would give federal bureaucrats and Congress new powers to dictate prices that insurance companies would have to pay to out-of-network doctors and hospitals.

In other words, it’s government price-fixing, which would reduce access to quality health care.

Key conservative lawmakers have not committed themselves to opposing this government price-fixing deal. And there is a good chance that the deal will pass the Senate so lawmakers can say they “did something” about surprise medical bills — even if that “something” is right out of the Bernie Sanders/AOC playbook.

As with all price control schemes, this deal would result in shortages, as many health care providers would find themselves unable to run successful and viable practices with government-set reimbursement rates for their medical services.

And insurance companies would use the government-set reimbursement rates for out-of-network providers as their formula for setting in-network rates. The price control scheme would eventually affect all doctors, both in and out-of-network.

So if you like your doctor . . . too bad!

Republicans may finish the job Obama started to drive doctors out of business!

But we can stop them.

Please call the lawmakers listed below and tell them not to support the Senate-House deal on surprise medical bills. Tell them to focus on real solutions that would end surprise medical bills and would empower patients — not politicians.

Let them know they should support free-market health care solutions to surprise medical bills instead of the one that was torn out of the Bernie Sanders/AOC playbook.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
202-224-2541

Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE)
202-224-4224

Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE)
202-224-6551

Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO)
202-224-5941

Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC)
202-224-6342

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)
202-225-2915