As the heads of the five major, private hospital networks in New York, you have a unique level of power over the quality and affordability of healthcare available to New Yorkers.

As healthcare costs continue to rise, more and more working New York families are struggling to maintain their health care and make ends meet. Hospital costs in the New York metro area are among the highest in the country, and spending is continuing to grow more rapidly than the national average. A Rand study conducted in 2020 found that New York hospitals in 2018 charged an average of 302% of the Medicare reimbursement rate for the same procedures. Numerous studies have found that higher hospital pricing does not directly correlate to a higher quality of care.

The high prices that your hospitals charge are hurting working families. Every dollar that goes towards costs is one less dollar that could have gone to wages for workers, and, in the case of government spending, to fund important public services.

We call on you to take immediate action to come to the table in good faith with the city, state, and self-insured health funds and agree to fair, transparent contracts with equitable and affordable prices.