Private Equity Hijacked a Patient Protection Law

This article was originally published in RealClearHealth

Stefano Forte  -   January 21, 2026

President Trump did what Washington had failed to do for decades: he stood up for patients and put an end to one of the most abusive practices in American healthcare. Surprise medical billing, where families did everything right and still got crushed with massive, out-of-network bills, was a massive scam hiding in plain sight. The No Surprises Act was meant to shut it down, and under President Trump’s leadership, it did exactly that.

Patients are no longer being ambushed with potentially life-shattering bills after emergency care. That is a real achievement.

But passing strong, pro-patient reform is only half the battle in Washington. The other half is stopping entrenched interests from figuring out how to exploit it. And once again, private equity firms – perpetually flush with cash, lawyers, and lobbyists – have found a way to game the system.

While surprise bills may be down, healthcare costs are not. In fact, the No Surprises Act has quietly triggered about $5 billion in new costs in just its first three years. Those costs will be passed on to working Americans through higher premiums and employer costs while wages stay stagnant.

So how did a commonsense patient protection turn into a profit engine for private equity?

Stefano Forte is the President of the New York Young Republican Club and Executive Director of the 1776 Project PAC. He wrote this op-ed for Real Clear Health.