The public health emergency due to COVID-19 has exposed many deficiencies in our health care system, including worsening the problem of out-of-network surprise medical bills.

Surprise medical bills happen when a person seeks care according to the rules of their insurance to the best of their ability, but receives treatment without notice that is outside their insurance network. These bills can lead to financial ruin, forcing families to pay hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars for care they need, despite following all of the rules. At moments of greatest medical need, patients and their families should be able to focus on getting better, rather than whether or not they will pay a small fortune to see a doctor or nurse.

But the problem of surprise bills isn’t limited to this crisis. Even in good times, 10,000 Americans receive a surprise bill every day, and we know that number will only grow as the pandemic forces more families to seek health care.

Congress is planning legislative action to limit the health and economic impacts of the pandemic. In this next package, Congress should fix surprise bills once and for all. There is a bipartisan agreement already to do just that--but our representatives need to hear from us to make sure it is included in the next package!

Sign our petition today to demand that Congress ends surprise medical bills in their next pandemic legislation, and protects consumers from these abuses.