Former Lawmaker Rocky Raczkowski Working To Stop Hospitals From Overcharging

A former Michigan lawmaker who served in the Michigan

House of Representatives from 1997 to 2003, is leading a petition drive to limit how much hospitals can charge uninsured and underinsured patients and those injured in car accidents.

Republican Rocky Raczkowski will be asking the state elections board on Monday to approve his "Stop Overcharging" petition. If he collects 285,000 signatures, the initiated bill goes to the Legislature.

It lawmakers reject it, the legislation would get a statewide vote.

Rocky says his proposal would prohibit hospitals from charging patients more than 150 percent of the lowest amount they accept as payment in full from any payer. He calls the current charging scheme "discriminatory" and says prices are "out of control."

Previous efforts to stop hospitals from charging auto insurers more for care than they bill health insurers have stalled in the Legislature.