WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden delivered remarks from the White House on Friday afternoon in regards to the newest actions his administration is taking to assist decrease health care costs and restrict so-called insurance coverage junk fees to shoppers.

“Too many Americans lie in bed, staring at the ceiling worrying what will happen if their spouse gets seriously ill,” Biden stated, highlighting a collection of regulatory strikes that the White House announced in a fact sheet earlier within the day.

Among the administration’s new efforts are proposed guidelines that might shut loopholes that allow corporations provide “misleading insurance products that can discriminate based on pre-existing conditions and trick consumers into buying products that provide little or no coverage when they need it most,” the White House stated.

Actions taken by the Trump administration had allowed insurance coverage corporations to reap the benefits of these loopholes, it added.

In his remarks, Biden stated that beneath a brand new rule, insurance coverage corporations can be required to offer a transparent disclaimer upfront about what’s lined, “instead of burying it in fine print.”

Biden stated that his administration may also be rolling out new guidelines to additional curb shock medical billing, with the aim of defending tens of millions of Americans who obtain sudden payments for well being care they thought was in-network and lined by their insurance coverage.

The White House estimated that shock payments can price folks a mean of $750 to $2,600.

“Evading the law and playing games to charge crazy, outrageous prices has to end,” Biden stated.

The administration additionally stated it’s going to difficulty steerage to clarify that it is unlawful beneath federal legislation for well being plans that contract with hospitals to assert that they aren’t technically in-network.

“Health care services provided by these providers are either out-of-network and subject to the surprise billing protections,” the White House stated, “Or they are in-network and subject to the ACA’s annual limitation on cost-sharing, further protecting consumers from excessive out-of-pocket costs.”

The administration may also clarify that well being plans and suppliers should make details about “facility fees” for care supplied exterior of hospitals, like at a health care provider’s workplace, out there to shoppers, based on the very fact sheet.

In addition, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Treasury Department are planning to collaborate on figuring out whether or not well being care suppliers are complying with client protections when signing up sufferers for third-party medical bank cards.

The White House stated these new actions are a part of the president’s financial imaginative and prescient, lately dubbed “Bidenomics.”

In his remarks, the president argued that Bidenomics is “restoring the American dream,” which has been restricted “to those at the top.”

Biden beforehand introduced efforts to focus on junk charges in his State of the Union tackle this 12 months, saying “junk charges could not matter to the very rich, however they matter to most other people in houses just like the one I grew up in, like lots of you probably did.”

The Biden administration has been trying to tackle extra fees which have led to larger prices for shoppers in different industries, comparable to when folks journey or order tickets for a concert or sporting event.