Editorial: Keep curb on hospital cost hikes

Wednesday, May 28, 1997 | 10:48 a.m.

A six-year-old law that has successfully held down spiraling hospital costs now is giving legislators second thoughts. But the state Senate should not let this important consumer protection legislation die without a through review of the medical-care marketplace.

After all, the law enacted in 1991 was to curb runaway costs of hospital care in Nevada, costs that were skyrocketing insurance fees and making health-care fees outrageous for the uninsured. Nevadans recognized a need to limit hospital cost increases, and, since then, the controls have worked well.

Hospital fees have been limited to the increases in the medical consumer price index, which have averaged about 7 percent annually. That's not a bad profit over the years. This year, the permitted increase would be about 3 percent.

Representatives of Nevada hospitals claim the law is no longer needed since market pressures from employers and health-care insurers have held down costs.

But, notwithstanding a demonstrated deterioration in health care, we have to agree with Chris Thompson, head of the state's Health Care Financial Analysis Unit, who says the law is working well. He and many legislators, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, wonder why swap a law that's effective for future uncertainties.

A better course would be to re-enact the law, which expires June 30, and review the market situation in the next legislative session. By any standard, hospital costs already are beyond most people's ability to pay -- $1,000 a day is not unusual -- and consumers need protection from an even worse situation.

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