Rock stars, lawmakers and advocates gathered together in Washington, D.C., Tuesday night to put their collective support behind health care price transparency legislation — as well as to enjoy a set by the Foo Fighters.
Hosted by the nonprofit organization Power to the Patients, hundreds gathered at the Anthem concert hall in southwest Washington. The event was held specifically to rally support behind the Health Care PRICE Transparency Act 2.0 introduced by Sens. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.).
The House passed its own version of the bill — the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act — in December with bipartisan support. The Senate bill has been referred to the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, chaired by Sanders.
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), a physician herself, appeared at the event but did not take any questions from reporters.
Musicians including Chuck D, Fat Joe and Valerie June also appeared at the event, sharing their own personal experiences with health care costs.
“As a person who lives with a chronic illness and has personally faced having my entire life savings been wiped out from medical debt, I stand with my patients and friends and neighbors and family members who hit hard times and have lost their homes and lost their cars and different things from medical debt,” June told reporters.
June recalled hoping that she wouldn’t be checked into the hospital when she was diagnosed with Type 1.5 diabetes, despite the severity of her condition at the time, due to the exorbitant cost.
“The writing is on the wall. We have to pass the bill now. Salute Congress, they passed something, but we looking at Sen. Braun and Bernie Sanders’s bill that has to real language that we need that brings real health care transparency to the American people,” Fat Joe told the crowd. “Estimates are bulls‑‑‑. We want the prices.”
The Foo Fighters took to the stage later in the evening. Though they did not take any questions from reporters, frontman Dave Grohl expressed solidarity with the other musicians while on stage, dedicating the song “My Hero” to Chuck D because he “shows up when there’s something going on that needs fixing … he does the right thing every time.”
