Call on New York legislators to make healthcare more affordable
by supporting the Fair Pricing Act

Scroll down or click here to sign this letter to NY legislators.

With rising costs and unprecedented cuts to Medicaid in the last year, healthcare affordability has become a serious concern for small business owners, limiting our ability to grow our businesses and provide benefits for employees. Meanwhile, New York’s small group health insurance market has shrunk by 24% since 2020, further causing premiums to skyrocket.

We need solutions that bring down the high cost of care, which are increasingly being driven by hospitals and their rising costs. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, hospital price inflation has risen by an estimated 88% in the last 15 years for urban consumers, far exceeding inflation in prescription drugs, housing or food prices. And here in New York, hospitals often charge four times more than doctors' offices for routine services. The Fair Pricing Act would cap how much a healthcare provider can charge for outpatient services, regardless of the setting in which it is provided. This would level the playing field and provide relief to thousands of New York small business owners and employees and save up to $1.14 billion annually in healthcare spending in the state. 

Small Business Majority’s polling shows that a majority of small businesses believe hospitals are responsible for recent increases in healthcare costs. Additionally, 82% say the government should set limits on what hospitals can charge for particular services.

In recent years, hospital conglomerates in New York and nationwide have amassed outsized market power through consolidation and anti-competitive practices—squeezing smaller healthcare practices out of the market—and used that market power to charge higher prices. Policymakers must cap how much a provider can charge for certain services, putting an end to providers billing differently based on where the procedure is taking place.

Even after accounting for inflation, employer health insurance premiums have risen dramatically in the last four decades. Small businesses already struggle to provide healthcare to their employees as we don’t have access to the same robust plans that large corporations have, and as hospital prices increase, the rates in the small group market skyrocket. Outsized healthcare prices not only affect overall health outcomes as a state, but also the bottom line of businesses. 

This commonsense checks-and-balances policy will reign in hospital monopolies to increase access to healthcare for small employers. We urge you to support the Fair Pricing Act and create a more equitable and affordable healthcare system for New York’s job creators.