PRA Response to CMS Announcing National Health Expenditures Grew to 17.6% of GDP in 2023

Cynthia A. Fisher, founder and chairman of PatientRightsAdvocate.org, released the following statement on today's announcement by CMS that national health expenditures grew to $4.9 trillion and 17.6% of GDP in 2023:

"Runaway healthcare costs are devouring the nation's economy, including workers' wages, business earnings, and public-sector budgets. Between 2016 and 2023, national health expenditures grew by 47%, far outstripping the 31% growth in average wages and the 27% increase in the consumer price index over the same period. Systemwide price transparency is urgently needed to reverse these inflated healthcare costs, protect patients from overcharges, and empower employers and unions to design affordable health plans. As long as hospitals and health insurers keep hiding their prices, they can charge essentially whatever they want, with unaccountable and inefficient middlemen further driving up costs. Actual prices can create a functional healthcare marketplace based on choice and competition that puts downward pressure on costs just as in every other sector of the economy. Knowing prices can lower costs and save approximately $1 trillion a year from the healthcare industrial complex, boosting workers' wages and take-home pay.”