Rep. David Rouzer
Washington, D.C. – House Republicans unveiled a comprehensive platform to repeal the President’s healthcare law and replace it with a step-by-step plan to provide every American access to quality, affordable healthcare. This plan, referred to as “A Better Way to Fix Health Care,” would make 48 reforms to significantly improve our healthcare system and is the product of several months of task force meetings and discussions.
“It’s no secret that our healthcare system has been broken for a long time,” said Rep. David Rouzer. “The American people hoped that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) would improve accessibility, affordability and options; but, instead healthcare plans now cover less, cost more, and we are witnessing doctors plot their exit from the field of medicine.
‘A Better Way to Fix Healthcare’ includes 48 proposals to improve healthcare, protect those with preexisting conditions, increase transparency, eliminate mandates increasing the cost of insurance, protect the quality of care, promote innovation, decrease costs and preserve Medicare for current enrollees and future beneficiaries. Our plan helps to create an environment to produce the best health outcomes and insurance plans for all Americans – regardless of age, income, medical conditions or circumstances.”
“A Better Way to Fix Health Care” provides more control and choices for individuals by:
· Offering a refundable tax credit for individuals without access to employer coverage, Medicare, or Medicaid to go towards buying health insurance in the individual market;
· Expanding the use of health savings accounts to provide individuals the freedom to choose the care that is best for them;
· Allowing individuals to purchase a plan licensed in another state to increase market competition and affordability; and,
· Allowing small businesses and individuals to band together through new pooling mechanisms, which will enable them to use their strength of numbers to negotiate with insurers for lower prices.
“A Better Way to Fix Health Care” ensures individuals will not have their coverage taken away due to age, income, medical conditions or circumstances by:
· Protecting patients with pre-existing conditions so that they can never be denied coverage;
· Allowing dependents up to age 26 to stay on their parents’ plan;
· Prohibiting insurers from turning away patients when they renew plans simply because they are sick;
· Establishing continuous coverage protections so that individuals are not charged more than standard rates;
· Giving states more flexibility to encourage young people to buy – and keep – insurance which will help lower costs for everyone;
· Creating a one-time open enrollment period for individuals to join the healthcare market if they are uninsured;
· Empowering states to design Medicaid programs that best meet their needs to help reduce costs and improve care for the most vulnerable individuals;
· Codifying permanent protections for life and conscience so that doctors, nurses, hospitals and providers have the freedom to exercise their conscience and opt out of providing abortions; and,
· Preventing federal taxpayer dollars from being used for abortions.
“A Better Way to Fix Health Care” encourages biomedical innovation to accelerate the discovery, development and delivery of life-saving treatments by:
· Providing the NIH with a robust, steady level of discretionary funding while increasing accountability for taxpayers;
· Ensuring taxpayers get the most out of their tax dollars by breaking down barriers to sharing and analyzing health data;
· Streamlining clinical trials and modernizing data-collection activities to improve how treatments are developed, tested, and ultimately approved by the FDA;
· Advancing personalized medicine by making sure the regulatory system keeps pace with the state of science so that patients can be treated based on their genetic makeup; and,
· Improving the use of electronic health records to help spur innovation and improve partnerships between the technology and healthcare sectors.
“A Better Way to Fix Health Care” protects and preserves Medicare by:
· Strengthening Medicare Advantage and repealing the most damaging Medicare provisions in Obamacare, including the unaccountable and bureaucratic Independent Payment Advisory Board;
· Adopting bipartisan reforms to make Medicare more responsive to patients’ needs, while updating payment models that are outdated and inefficient; and,
· Preserving Medicare for future generations by giving future beneficiaries the opportunity to choose from an array of competing private plans alongside traditional Medicare, which will help seniors pay for or offset premium costs for the plan of their choice. This would begin in 2024.
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