[user72685]

> I do love "sensible policy changes" that work by extracting money from physicians to cover patient bills rather than actually fixing the systemic dysfunction.

The article says insurers are required to pay:

> The doctors would instead have to work with patients’ insurance, which would pay the greater of the following two amounts: > > * The median in-network rate negotiated by health plans > * 125 percent of the average amount paid to similar providers in the same geographic area

That seems more than reasonable to me. They will get greater than market rate, if you define "market rate" as rates negotiated between insurers and doctors and not whatever nonsense they can get away with charging when the patient does not have pricing information and often isn't in a position to make a decision anyway.

> Here's a sensible solution: when it comes to emergency-based care, insurers must accept all comers as in-network. There's no such thing as "out of network" emergency-related care.

They are already required to pay for out-of-network emergency care even if the plan ordinarily doesn't cover out-of-network services at all, but they are only required to pay the usual and customary rates for those services, not the inflated nonsense bills (unless it's a state-regulated plan where state law requires the insurer to pay the inflated bills).