Most Americans support surprise-billing legislation —across party lines, according to a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The September poll asked 1,205 U.S. adults, "Do you support or oppose legislation protecting patients from paying the cost not covered by their insurance when they receive care from a provider or hospital who is not in their network?"
Seventy-eight percent of respondents support such legislation, while 20 percent oppose it.
Overwhelming support continued across political parties. Eighty-four percent of Democrat respondents said they support surprise-billing legislation, compared to 14 percent who said they oppose it, according to the poll. Seventy-one percent of Republican respondents said they support such legislation, compared to 26 percent who oppose it.
The poll comes as lawmakers are considering federal proposals to address surprise medical bills that occur after they unintentionally receive out-of-network care in emergency situations or at in-network hospitals.
One idea under consideration is a dispute resolution process, such as arbitration, for out-of-network payments between providers and insurance companies.
A benchmarking approach for these out-of-network payments — under which insurance companies would reimburse providers based on the local median contracted commercial amount they pay other providers they contracted with and agreed to in that geographic area — is also under consideration.
According to Kaiser Family Foundation, the poll found that 57 percent of respondents support passing surprise-billing legislation, despite hearing critics' claims that the benchmarking approach would lead to less pay to physicians and hospitals.
Read more about the poll here.
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