Columbus, OH – In a new policy report, How to Make Ohio Healthcare More Affordable: A Public Policy Guide, The Buckeye Institute outlines policy and regulatory reforms that state policymakers can adopt to make healthcare more affordable.  

“Employers across the country face the challenge of finding affordable healthcare plans that meet the needs of their employees,” said Rea S. Hederman Jr., author of the report and the executive director of the Economic Research Center and vice president of policy at The Buckeye Institute. “Fortunately, as The Buckeye Institute’s report outlines, transparency, choice, and competition offer better paths forward for reducing costs and improving quality in healthcare.”     

In the report, The Buckeye Institute offers the following nine commonsense policy and regulatory reforms that states can pursue to make healthcare and insurance plans more affordable:

• Reform Medical Licensing Laws: Expand the pool of medical providers, such as certified registered nurse anesthetists, to reduce costs and increase access to care.
• Utilize Advanced-Practice Registered Nurses: Allow highly-trained APRNs, such as certified registered nurse anesthetists, to treat patients to fill gaps in healthcare and to free physicians to treat more patients.
• Reduce Facility Fees: Stop hospitals and healthcare systems from charging excessive fees to use their facilities and equipment.
• Promote Transparent Pricing: Require hospitals and healthcare providers to post all consumer prices, including costs for available treatments, equipment use, facility fees, and other expenses.
• Improve Use of Artificial Intelligence: Use AI to perform data-related and diagnostic functions more efficiently than humans to reduce administrative costs and improve care.
• Prevent Medicaid Abuse: Medicaid fraud cost Ohio more than $1 billion. Reducing it will increase access to care for those eligible, protect taxpayers, and incentivize work. 
• Repeal Health Insurance Benefit Mandates: Eliminate mandates to increase flexibility for insurance providers to offer more and more affordable health insurance plans.
• Do Not Allow “Any Willing Provider” Requirements & Government Price-Setting: Eliminating these requirements will increase market competition and innovation, leading to lower drug and healthcare prices.
• Deter Anti-Competitive Healthcare Practices: Use regulatory oversight to encourage and ensure competitive plans, pricing, and care.

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