You’re seated at the restaurant, given a menu, and notice something missing: no prices. What’s going on?

It’s sure to be an expensive place, but even most nicer establishments list their prices. A menu without prices suggests, “money is no object.” It heightens a sense of conspicuous consumption for customers kept in the dark—at least until they pay the bill.

So why does American medicine work this way?

Whether buying a coffee or a car, we expect to know the price first. If the coffee shop’s menu says $4.00, but a barista tries to charge $7.00, we call it a scam. Yet hiding prices, or even changing them after providing service, has become part of the business model for many medical providers and insurers.

One obvious reason is health care executives want to maximize revenue. Prices invite questions about relative value. They make it possible to shop around. Even more obviously, as in the coffee shop example, they serve as an agreement that protects customers.

Yet in medicine, some providers actually hire consultants to find more “codes” to bill additional and greater amounts after completing treatment. This upcoding artificially inflates the cost of health care and health insurance. It’s not only unnecessary, it should be considered unethical.

Under pressure to become more transparent, some medical providers do offer an estimate. Read the fine print, however, and patients discover the listed prices are not binding. They’re basically meaningless.

Without true prices, there is no financial certainty for people making health care decisions—except that they’ll be held responsible for the final bill. This puts patients at a real disadvantage, especially when a bill has errors or unexpected fees, since the charges are unknown until after services are provided and the bill is due.

The first Trump administration began work to require health care providers and insurers be upfront with patients about the real costs of care.

The Biden administration sidelined those efforts, dropping the ball on measures that could have long been implemented to protect patients.

It is telling that both the Obama and Biden administrations consistently sided with medical corporations and insurance companies over patients. Remember: all the Obamacare and other “subsidies” flow directly into the pockets of those two industries.

Now, the Trump administration is at work again on rules to protect patients, improve health care, and hold industry executives accountable.

Whenever possible, informed consent for medical treatments should mean knowing the actual costs before care. This would put more power in the hands of patients instead of medical and insurance executives. For too long, they have made backroom deals while premiums went up and out-of-pocket costs soared. The new rules would end surprise medical bills and allow patients to be informed consumers with greater choice.

Another step that the Trump administration could take quickly to hold insurers accountable and empower consumers is to require advanced notice to patients that shows exactly what insurance will cover and what will be the out-of-pocket cost. Think of it: no surprises, no hidden fees, all the details up front. Every American would benefit, and see the difference, the next time they receive care.

President Trump signed this policy, which is called an Advanced Explanation of Benefits into law in his first term. Again, the Biden Administration did nothing to implement it, but the law remains on the books and ready to be put into action. That’s why Save Our States recently wrote President Donald Trump to applaud his historic leadership on price transparency and urge full implementation of AEOBs.

While Democrats in Washington argue over subsidies that only push prices higher, this is a cost-saving policy that would help all Americans, providing financial certainty, lower costs, greater freedom of choice, and accountability to big insurance companies. Price transparency isn’t a partisan policy. It’s something that will help every American in ways that are easy to see and understand. For families nationwide, making health care decisions should be more like buying a cup of coffee, and less like dining on caviar.

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