Thanks to AZHealthPrices.com, a new website launched today by the Arizona chapter of Americans for Prosperity Foundation, health care consumers in the Grand Canyon State can now shop around for lower health care prices and help to drive down those prices!
Ever left a hospital, and found yourself stuck with an outrageously expensive bill?
Last year, activists from our sister organization, AFP-Arizona, helped to pass a Direct Pay Price health care transparency reform bill in the Arizona Legislature. Now, with the Direct Pay Price law in effect, you can prepare yourself in advance, and keep yourself from getting gouged by hidden prices. This will be especially important now, as ObamaCare goes into effect and raises health plan deductibles and increases out-of-pocket costs for Arizona families. With that increased exposure, you may find yourself having to pay cash directly for hospital services — so you need to start shopping now!
Thanks to Arizona’s Direct Pay Price reform, large medical facilities (over 50 beds) must provide cash prices for the 50 most common medical procedures. Facilities with fewer than 50 beds must provide cash prices for the 35 most common medical procedures.
To see price lists from hospitals that have complied with the law, CLICK HERE.
Or, you can TAKE ACTION NOW to contact non-compliant hospitals to urge them to publish their direct pay prices on the web – as is now REQUIRED BY LAW.
Of course, price is never the only factor when it comes to making health care decisions. But if your doctor tells you that the three hospitals nearest you are equal in quality, why not go to the most cost-effective one?
Check the new website as we continue to update prices. And thank you for doing your part in generating competition to drive down hospital prices!
• Of the recent school choice programs that have passed—Education Savings Accounts in Arizona, vouchers in Indiana, parent triggers in California, etc., which are the most important for children?
• Can school choice programs take credit for recent successes in US education?
• What are the biggest challenges to school choice today?
• How can we ensure that school choice successes are not derailed by government intervention?
• How can we ensure that children in traditional district schools are not “left behind” by school choice reforms?
• What special efforts must be made to meetthe needs of students who live in poverty?
• What are the effects of high-stakes government tests on students and teachers?
To attend this event, RSVP to Bill Fathauer at 480-332-0477 or bfathauer@afphq.org. Please tell Bill if you are bringing any guests, and please give him your name, email address and best phone contact. We look forward to seeing you on January 28!
Victory! We Beat the Arizona Obamacare Exchange!
AFP-Arizona is also grateful to all of the Arizona Legislators who stood their ground against the state-funded Exchange in the face of intense lobbying pressure from corporate interests that had been bought off by ObamaCare’s system of government mandates and subsidies. Further, AFP-Arizona is grateful to its donors for supporting usthrough this long fight, and we are grateful for the policy advice afforded to us by members of our coalition, including the Goldwater Institute and the Cato Institute. Finally, and most importantly, AFP-Arizona is grateful to the thousands of grassroots activists in Arizona who took action against the Arizona Exchange by writing emails, making phone calls, and confronting elected officials at public meetings — more than anything else, their activism won this battle.
The fight to contain and control the wide-ranging damage of the ObamaCare legislation is far from over, and AFP-Arizona is now ready to fight ObamaCare’s hugely expensive (but optional!) Medicaid expansion here in Arizona. But it’s important to take the time to celebrate our victories, so we will soon send out an invitation for an upcoming Victory Party for all of the activists and elected officials who fought the ObamaCare exchange. At the party, we will also celebrate the decisive victory of Arizona taxpayers over the Prop 204 sales tax hike on the November 6 ballot.
And on the topic of Prop 204, AFP-Arizona wishes to express our deep gratitude to Governor Brewer for taking a firm stance against the permanent one-cent sales tax hike. Governor Brewer promised Arizonans in 2010 that her intention was for the Prop 100 sales tax hike to be a temporary expedient, and she kept her promise.