Unchecked monopoly powers are undermining the competitiveness of Texas businesses
Texas employers have joined a national effort to address the root causes of out-of-control health care prices, which are cutting into jobs and wages across the state.
Texas Employers for Affordable Health Care (TXEAHC) is a statewide coalition of businesses that advocates for needed market reforms to rein in excessive prices for employer-sponsored health care.
“Lawmakers have taken crucial steps towards unwinding abusive practices in the health care industry,” said Dr. Chris Skisak, executive director of TXEAHC. “But due to the distorted incentives that exist in the health care industry, corporations have gained monopoly powers. That results in unrelenting efforts to extract as much money as possible from Texas businesses and their employees.
“We aren’t going to take it anymore.”
As part of its far-reaching campaign to rein in health care expenses, TXEAHC has come together with Employers Against Hospital Pricing Abuse, led by the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, to spotlight three key factors resulting in out-of-control health care prices:
- Hospitals pocketing government-mandated discounts and exploiting tax breaks, leaving businesses and workers to pick up the tab.
- Industry consolidation giving a few hospital systems unchecked monopoly pricing power over the businesses and employees who pay health care bills.
- The ability to hide basic information, including about prices and quality, leaving businesses and their employees unable to make informed choices about their health care.
Earlier this month, the human resources consulting firm Mercer announced that employers are facing the largest increase in the cost of health care benefits in 15 years. The problem, Skisak said, is that health care corporations are responding to incentives that do not align with patient care.
That undermines the competitiveness of Texas businesses, he added, and employers are coming together to stop it.