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FIRST ON FOX: Parental rights group American Parents Coalition is launching a new healthcare transparency tool for families they say will contribute to the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” goals and target America’s leading cause of bankruptcy.
American Parents Coalition, which has previously made headlines for its advocacy on behalf of parents regarding gender identity issues, is now targeting medical debt by launching “The Lookout.”
The Lookout is a notification system texted directly to parents that helps them stay informed and offers guidance on how to advocate for themselves on behalf of healthcare price transparency to their members of Congress and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
A statement by the group shared with Fox News Digital explained the medical industry’s lack of transparency about healthcare costs and significant variability in pricing has forced many American parents into the “unthinkable position of choosing between healthcare and other necessities.”
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The group pointed to data gathered by KFF News that indicated over 100 million Americans – 41 percent of U.S. adults – hold medical debt they cannot pay.
“Hidden costs and price variability exacerbate the issue, creating financial uncertainty and posing a significant barrier to medical care,” the group said in the statement.
American Parents Coalition praised recent actions by the Trump administration to increase medical price transparency, including a new Make America Healthy Again rule by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and an executive order signed in February.
The order directed the Departments of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to implement policies to “ensure hospitals and insurers disclose actual prices, not estimates, and take action to make prices comparable across hospitals and insurers, including prescription drug prices.”
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The White House’s fact sheet on the order claimed that healthcare costs could be lowered by an average of 27 percent on 500 common services by better shopping for care.
The group also praised the bipartisan “Patients Deserve Price Tags Act,” introduced by Senators Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and John Hickenlooper, D-Colo.
According to the American Parents Coalition, their new tool will help parents navigate the changing landscape to best save on healthcare costs.
“Americans can’t get or stay healthy if they shy away from medical care due to price uncertainty,” American Parents Coalition Executive Director Alleigh Marré told Fox News Digital.
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“A parent should be in the driver’s seat of their child’s health and safety,” said Marré.
“Expecting parents to make health decisions for their families with no information on costs can lead to unexpected medical expenses making it harder to plan for, recover from, and avoid financial strain,” she said, adding, “No parent should ever feel like they must choose between medical care over necessities like food or clothing simply because they don’t know what to expect.”
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