"The Biden Plan will: Stop 'surprise billing.' Consumers trying to lower their health care spending often try to choose an in-network provider. But sometimes patients are unaware they are receiving care from an out-of-network provider and a big, surprise bill. 'Surprise medical billing' could occur, for example, if you go to an in-network hospital but don’t realize a specialist at that hospital is not part of your health plan. The Biden Plan will bar health care providers from charging patients out-of-network rates when the patient doesn’t have control over which provider the patient sees (for example, during a hospitalization)."

Source: Joe Biden, "Healthcare," joebiden.com (accessed Apr. 27, 2020)

"Yes, by removing barriers to competition. In a free-market, healthcare providers who pop surprise bills on their customers would quickly lose business to their competitors."

Source: Communication from the Jorgensen campaign to ProCon.org on Aug. 26, 2020

"For too long, surprise billings — which has been a tremendous problem in this country — has left some patients with thousands of dollars of unexpected and unjustified charges for services they did not know anything about and, sometimes, services they did not have any information on. They weren’t told by the doctor. They weren’t told by the hospitals in the areas they were going to. And they get, what we call, a 'surprise bill.' Not a pleasant surprise; a very unpleasant surprise.

So this must end. We’re going to hold insurance companies and hospitals totally accountable...

And I’ll go a step further: No American mom or dad should lay awake at night worrying about the hidden fees or shocking unexpected medical bills to come.

Today I’m announcing principles that should guide Congress in developing bipartisan legislation to end surprise medical billing."

Source: White House, "Remarks by President Trump on Ending Surprise Medical Billing," whitehouse.gov, May 9, 2019