FreedomWorks Statement in Response to Rumored Inclusion of Surprise Billing Provisions in Third Phase of Coronavirus Bailout

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Following reports that congressional leadership is pushing to include language in the third phase of coronavirus legislation to artificially fix prices in an effort to address medical “surprise billing,” Jason Pye, FreedomWorks’ Vice President of Legislative Affairs, commented:

“This is exactly the kind of thing that Congress should not be doing as a knee-jerk response to a crisis. It’s a time for targeted, temporary, science-backed solutions to deal with containing the coronavirus and helping those directly harmed by its economic consequences. A federal, top-down mandate to ‘fix’ surprise billing is likely to cause as many new problems as it solves, likely leading to shortages of care that will last long after we’ve beaten back the pandemic.”