Washington, D.C. — Today, the Center for American Progress released a major new plan to lower health care costs for American families. CAP’s health agenda is focused on delivering immediate relief for Americans by curbing industry abuses that drive up prices and ensuring savings reach consumers through lower premiums and out-of-pocket costs. This is the latest report in CAP’s “Path Forward” series, offering bold ideas on affordability and an affirmative vision for the future.
CAP’s report outlines a “Patients’ Bill of Rights” designed to take on the key drivers of high health care costs and deliver near-term savings for patients at a time when families are facing record premiums, rising deductibles, and growing barriers to care.
The report finds that health care costs in the United States are nearly twice as high as in peer countries, driven largely by excessive prices rather than higher utilization. Today, the average family premium for employer coverage is about $27,000 per year, with workers paying nearly $7,000 out of pocket. Over the past five years, employee premium contributions alone have increased by about 23 percent.
Polling from the Center for American Progress and Blue Rose Research shows voters overwhelmingly want policymakers focused on lowering costs now—not years from now. CAP’s policies—limiting premium increases, reducing hospital prices, cracking down on price gouging, and reforming prior authorization—rank among the top-performing ideas tested, outperforming 90 percent (or more) of all policies, including those outside of health care.
CAP outlines a clear, actionable agenda to lower costs quickly—building on the success of Medicare drug price negotiation, which has already begun delivering savings—including:
- Limiting excessive premium increases by tying rate hikes to actual medical cost growth and rejecting unjustified increases by strengthening provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This would reduce individual market premiums by about $415 in states with excessive rate hikes and cut family employer premiums by roughly $1,156 in affected states.
- Lowering deductibles by reducing outlier hospital prices in highly concentrated markets, cutting average employer deductibles roughly in half in concentrated markets and lowering employer family premiums by $1,308 per year by 2032.
- Cracking down on insurance company price gouging through stronger limits on profits and administrative costs, returning up to $132 per enrollee annually, or about $6 billion per year, through rebates and lower premiums.
- Banning and replacing prior authorization with evidence-based clinical review to ensure patients get timely care.
“Family budgets are breaking under the weight of high health care costs,” said Neera Tanden, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress. “Leaders need to focus on delivering lower costs by taking on special interests in the health care system. This plan does just that, delivering real relief by lowering premiums, lowering deductibles, and removing barriers to care.”
“The system is at a breaking point because mega insurance companies and hospital systems are price gouging families,” said Topher Spiro, senior fellow for Health Policy at the Center for American Progress and co-author of the report. “This plan directly cracks down on price gouging and stops insurance company bureaucrats from denying care—the immediate relief Americans are crying out for.”
While broader structural reforms remain important, they could take years to implement. In the near term, consumers need immediate relief from rising premiums, growing deductibles, and barriers to care. CAP is offering a targeted reform agenda that can work quickly to lower costs, improve care, and restore accountability.
Read the report: “A Patients’ Bill of Rights To Lower Health Care Costs” by Topher Spiro, Neera Tanden, Natasha Murphy, Neda Ashtari, Kierra B. Jones, and Brian Keyser
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, please contact Christian Unkenholz at [email protected].