Twenty-Two Billion

Congress passed a law so the ER bill would stop surprising you. Georgetown just counted what that law costs now. Twenty-two point four billion dollars. Four years of arbitration between doctors and insurers. You were not in the room.

Sixteen point six of that twenty-two landed in 2025 alone. Providers won about 85 percent of the fights. The median award was more than four times the in-network rate. The patient does not get the surprise bill anymore. The shop gets the surprise premium.

UnitedHealthcare told investors the process is adding two to six percent to commercial premium expenses. New York's state-employee plan called two hundred million in extra claim payments a primary reason its 2025 rates jumped nearly ten percent. That is not a better ER. That is last year's argument, priced into this year's renewal.

I am not anti-insurance. Keep a policy for the wreck. I am anti a fight nobody can shop. We take care of patients for a flat monthly fee. No claim. No arbitrator. The number on the door is the number you pay.

Twenty-two billion is a price. It just never showed up on the bill you were supposed to be protected from.