Great piece by Anthony DiGiorgio, DO, MHA featured in today's O.C. Register "If we care about Americans’ health, independence, and pocketbooks, we need to change the game. By re-establishing patients as the customers and consumers, we can simultaneously maximize patient autonomy, re-invigorate

“In control of their dollars, patients make the best choices. When they pay directly, care happens faster. Providers must satisfy patients to earn their business ‒ aligning incentives, fostering competition and innovation, and creating a dynamic, vibrant marketplace for care.”

We need smart reforms that return quality and affordable care – reforms like equalizing payments at hospitals and lowering barriers that prevent medical providers from working. These reforms can expand access, lower costs, and put patients first.

Health care should revolve around you and your doctor, without layers of bureaucracy getting in the way. At Fund the Patient, we’re advocating for a better way. FundThePatient.com

For decades, health reform has focused on big insurance companies, hospital systems, and government programs. It’s time to focus on people – patients like you. The best health care decisions happen between you and your doctor. Not third parties. FundThePatient.com

Too many health care decisions are taken out of your hands and left to third parties instead. But we disagree – patients belong in the driver’s seat. Join our movement to fight for that goal at fundthepatient.com.

The Health Care Freedom for Patients Act – would direct federal health dollars to patients through personal Health Savings Accounts. The bill recognizes that patients, not systems, should have more control over their care.

There’s one major health policy question that Congress must answer: Should health care funding flow to institutions or patients? Allowing patients to control their own health care dollars will increase access, improve care options, and lower costs. Fund The Patient.

New letter to the editor in The New York Times from Ge Bai, advisor to Fund The Patient, on the health care cost crisis and how directly funding patients is the path to solve it.  nytimes.com/2025/12/21/opi…

Patients have little visibility into where their health care dollars actually go. The Health Care Freedom for Patients Act would allow health care funds to be deposited directly into patients’ pockets. Fund The Patient.

When health care dollars pass through multiple bureaucratic and institutional layers before reaching patients, costs rise and access to care declines. That reality is driving renewed interest in reforms to fund patients, not the system.

Patients are expected to navigate complex health systems; yet they rarely control the dollars spent on their behalf. Real reform starts by funding patients directly, and trusting patients with transparency, choice, and ownership over their care.

American health care is more and more designed around institutions, with less and less focus devoted to patients. Direct patient funding flips that model by emphasizing autonomy so patients aren’t passive participants in decisions that affect their health and finances.

Health care shouldn’t feel like a black box. But for many, it does. Funding patients directly means fewer surprises, clearer tradeoffs, and the ability for patients to weigh cost, quality, and outcomes for themselves when they control their own health care dollars.

If American health care is “too complex” for patients to understand, maybe the problem isn’t with patients; it’s the system built around them. Complexity benefits third parties. Not the patients paying the bills. Fund The Patient.

.U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. and Senator Mike Crapo’s health care plan hits the mark by putting HSAs front and center. Empowering Americans with more control over their healthcare dollars is the best path forward for affordability and choice.

America has a world-class health care system. Yet patients don’t see the benefits because they don't know the real price of care. We can change this by empowering patients with their health care dollars, so they can shop for value and make the best decisions for their health.

Funding patients directly means more choice and flexibility, and patients can shop for the care that suits them and their families best. This is what happens when patients actively participate in the health care system: lower costs, more providers, and wins for everyone.

Lawmakers point to high health costs as pain points for the American people. But they miss the mark on the causes. Patients know that when they can’t control the dollars, they can’t mitigate the costs. Funding patients solves that problem.

84% of voters agree: our health care system is rigged against patients. Too much power sits with insurers, bureaucrats, and hospital systems — not families. It’s time to fund the patients, not the system.