(SMYRNA, TN) 49th District State Representative Mike Sparks (R) updates his work this past week in the General Assembly.

Healthcare

He serves on the Tennessee House Insurance Committee and that group heard testimony from Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management's Executive Director Dr. Van Horn who spoke passionately about the need for more transparency as a part of health care reform.

Sparks said, "You may recall this past summer, President Trump issued an executive order on healthcare price and quality transparency, much of it due to the insights and analysis offered by Dr. Van Horn. The professor was also on hand at the White House last summer for the announcement of two new rules requiring hospitals and insurers to make their negotiated prices public."

Sparks noted, "Sadly, many hospitals and insurance companies are doing everything they can to force the Trump Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CCMS) to stop their plan to force negotiated price disclosures."

The Smyrna legislator explained, "Many hospitals and insurance companies believe the president's proposal to make hospitals post their prices for medical services would be bad for business and patients. Fortunately, economists and patients themselves see price transparency as a good thing--after all, who purchases a dinner, a home, clothes, or a car without first knowing what the price is and possibly shopping the competition for a better deal. We should also require drug companies, insurance companies, and hospitals to disclose real prices to foster competition and bring costs down"

Sparks surmized, "Maybe that explains why BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee has filed an antitrust lawsuit against our state's executive director of the Department of Finance & Administration and 100 state employees in an attempt to block the release of 2018 claims data related to the state's employee health plans by Chairman Martin Daniel -- a move they believe violates their contract with the state along with several federal laws."

He said, "Rising healthcare costs, lack of transparency, suppressed competition, our aging Baby Boomers and the need for better healthcare outcomes is at a crisis level. As individuals age 65 and older spend, on average, three times more on healthcare per person than working-age individuals and five times more than children, it is clear that this path is totally unsustainable."

Although there is considerable amount of work to do regarding healthcare. It's an issue that sooner or later, we will all face in our lives.

State Representative Mike Sparks represents House District 49 in Rutherford County andis the chairman of the Consumer Subcommittee, serves on the Insurance Committee, Consumer and Human Resources Committee, Naming, Designating, and Private Acts Committee, and the Property and Casualty Subcommittee. He can be reached at 615-741-6829 and email