Sen. Jim Sullivan, D-Wauwatosa, plans to introduce legislation this week that would make health care providers and insurance companies create a price list for their services.

The legislation is aimed at letting consumers know how much they will be paying for health care before unexpectedly receiving a large bill for services rendered.

"The idea behind this legislation is simple: If health care providers disclose their prices, like every other industry in America, costs will go down," Sullivan said in a press release Friday. "If we want people to be better consumers of health care, we need to provide them with the tools necessary to make informed decisions."

Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, a citizen lobby group dedicated to holding people in power accountable for their decisions and actions, agreed this legislation would be helpful to consumers.

"I don’t see any downside. Why hide this information?" Heck said. "It would only help in making some of these procedures competitive in terms of costs."

In a release Friday, Sullivan said consumers’ ability to make good decisions about health care "has been limited by the lack of available information and a complex pricing system."

University of Wisconsin professor of population health sciences John Mullahy said while this legislation has good intentions, consumers often easily get lost in the complicated health care issue.

"There is getting information out to health care consumers, and there is getting useful information out to health care consumers, and those are two different things," Mullahy said. "When one talks about a price list, presumably that is the price to pay out-of-pocket. That kind of price list is irrelevant for 80-90 percent of the population who are paying through insurance."

Mullahy added if someone were to walk into a doctor’s office and saw the price list for procedures, those prices might be correct if the individual did not have any insurance. But for people who have insurance, they would need a personal estimate of out-of-pocket costs after what their insurance covers.

"The key is getting information out if it can be done in an efficient way that is useful to the consumer," Mullahy said. "But the information needs to be the type that empowers the consumer."

According to his release, Sullivan hopes the legislation will enable consumers "to shop around for the best value." Adding competition to the health care industry will force providers to "compete on price and quality, ultimately leading to a more efficient market."

Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said it is often difficult to get legislation concerning health care issues passed.

"When we follow the money in state politics, proponents are giving $7 to every $1 that supporters are giving. This legislation has been paralyzed on the issue of health care reform," McCabe said. "The people who are profiting and don’t want any change on this issue are giving a lot more money than those who want change."

Sullivan was unavailable for comment as of press time.