Hospitals keep dodging price transparency rules, leading Trump to take action — again
Trump signed an executive order on hospital price transparency. Experts say it could help lower health care costs, if hospitals comply.
For 17 years, Michelle Arroyo did everything she could to keep her son alive after he’d been diagnosed with brain cancer at 6 years old. The single mom from California moved from Orange County to Los Angeles to be closer to the best doctors and medical facilities, quit her job in real estate to care for her son around-the-clock and liquidated all her financial assets, including her retirement account.
But despite her best efforts, Arroyo’s son, Grayson Arroyo-Smiley, died in 2023 at 22 years old, leaving Arroyo distraught and saddled with mounting medical bills that soared, she said, into the millions. She was also left with a feeling that she’d been swindled by health care companies into having to pay both physically and emotionally for wanting the best for her son.
“The process is just so overwhelming,” Arroyo said, describing her experience in dealing with the growing number of bills and phone calls with insurance companies.
“It was like going through this in the dark,” she said. “You never knew what you were going to get. When you are trying to save a loved one’s life, you are not going to ask prices.”
Arroyo-Smiley was 6 years old when he was diagnosed with brain cancer. Courtesy Michelle ArroyoHad she known about those prices up front, Arroyo said, she would have been better able to make more informed decisions about care.
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