World Courant
FIRST ON FOX: Final Preventing Championship (UFC) heavyweight Jon Jones introduced Thursday that he’s about to ship a giant blow to hidden costs in healthcare.
UFC heavyweight champ Jon Jones mentioned that he can be launching a brand new initiative partnering with the nonprofit group Energy to the Sufferers to tackle hospitals, pharmacy profit managers and insurance coverage firms, which he says have “refuse[d]” to be clear with their costs with a view to rake in additional earnings.
“This subsequent battle for me is a private one, but it surely’s not only for me. It is for each American who has ever been bullied, robbed or deceived. It is arguably crucial battle of my profession,” Jones mentioned in a mock press convention akin to these he participates in when saying his subsequent UFC opponent. “My subsequent opponent might be: the American healthcare system.”
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Screenshot from Jon Jones Thursday announcement about his new initiative with Energy to the Sufferers. (Jon Jones)
Throughout his first time period, President Donald Trump handed healthcare worth transparency guidelines that pressured hospitals and insurers to publish all their costs, so sufferers may make extra knowledgeable selections about the place they wish to get their remedy and, consequently, improve competitors and decrease costs.
On the 2024 marketing campaign path, President Trump urged throughout an interview with podcaster Theo Von that the dearth of transparency round healthcare pricing amounted to “extortion” by these rich firms, and he charged former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris with refusing to implement his first-term rule. Nevertheless, in response to Trump, he’ll be “urgent” to make sure that this kind of transparency within the healthcare system involves fruition.
Jones mentioned throughout the mock press convention that individuals ought to know whether or not an MRI prices $600 or $6,000, noting that “in America, we should not need to advocate for honesty and accountability in healthcare.”
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Pictured is a photograph of a medical billing assertion, much like what most sufferers get. (iStock)
Medical payments are a number one reason behind chapter within the U.S., in response to some research. The Nationwide Institutes of Well being posited in 2019 {that a} survey of debtors confirmed that almost all of respondents, 58.5%, agreed that medical bills contributed to their monetary woes.
Trump has mentioned that if his first-term guidelines on healthcare pricing transparency had been enforced the best way he envisioned, it may have introduced down the worth of care by as a lot as 50% to 60%. Trump additionally blamed the healthcare business’s “highly effective” foyer for a motive why the principles haven’t been adequately enforced.
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Whereas Jones and Trump are allies – the fighter introduced the president together with his champion belt throughout one in all his current fights and in addition shocked followers with Trump’s signature dance transfer following his win – the problem is a bipartisan one. Over the past Congress, a cohort of Republicans and Democrats sought to go laws clamping down on enhancing hospital and insurer worth transparency.
President-elect Donald Trump greets Jon Jones after he defeated Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 at Madison Sq. Backyard, early Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Picture/Evan Vucci)
Energy to the Sufferers is not any stranger to star energy. The group has partnered up to now with nation superstars Lainey Wilson and Jelly Roll, in addition to rappers Fats Joe, Methodology Man and others.
“I’m proud to be becoming a member of Energy to the Sufferers to tackle hospitals and insurance coverage firms that refuse to point out their costs,” Jones instructed Fox Information Digital.
“For years, hospitals and insurers have been disregarding guidelines requiring them to reveal costs to sufferers upfront of care. In a healthcare system that lacks transparency and accountability, Jones mentioned, “With out actual costs, hospitals and well being insurers are making healthcare in America unaffordable, inaccessible, and completely dishonest. Once we can’t see or examine actual costs upfront, we’re blindsided by overcharges, price-gouging and shock payments that we are able to’t confirm are appropriate.”
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“In his first time period, President Trump took aggressive and historic motion to make healthcare costs out there to sufferers earlier than they get care as an alternative of sticking Individuals with shock payments,” mentioned White Home spokesperson Kush Desai. “After the Biden administration uncared for implementation of those commonsense concepts and allowed the healthcare business to maintain sufferers in the dead of night, the second Trump administration is dedicated to decreasing prices and Making America Wholesome Once more by giving Individuals the alternatives they need and the transparency they should make knowledgeable selections.”
