Personalized Care That Puts You and Your Doctor in Charge

What’s Needed for Health Care Reform: Personalized Care That Puts You and Your Doctor in Charge

The following is an open letter to the American Washington politicians or health insurance bureau- people from 81 leaders participating in the Health crats for permission. Policy Consensus Group. The full list of signatories follows the letter. Here’s how the Health Care Choices 2020 proposal makes you better off in at least 10 ways. The proposal: he nation faces a clear choice between two paths T for America’s health care future: 1. Empowers you to keep your health coverage and doctors when you change or lose • One path is largely controlled by the government, your job. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed where you get few choices and no options to escape. the need for people to have secure, portable health coverage. Congress should codify and improve • The other is controlled by you and doctors, lead- the administration’s Health Reimbursement Ar- ing to more choices, lower costs, and improved rangement rule that allows employers to offer and quality and access. employees to use tax-free dollars to buy insurance they can keep if they lose or change jobs. Our plan The first path builds on failure. Approaches like a also would let low-income patients use the value public option—”Medicare for All” on the installment of their existing government coverage to enroll plan—double down on Obamacare’s failures, espe- in better, private health plans, including employ- cially its soaring costs and tightening restrictions on er-sponsored coverage. access to the doctors and hospitals you want and need. 2. Saves you money on health care and Make no mistake: No matter how their ideas are drugs by making the prices of health care packaged, the left’s ultimate goal is Medicare for All— transparent. Medical care is one of the few ser- legislation sponsored by a majority of House Demo- vices where you don’t know the price until weeks crats that is full of empty promises and that would or months after you receive care. Congress should outlaw your existing coverage and put you on a gov- codify the administration’s transparency rules so ernment-run plan. you can compare prices and obtain the best value— and share in the savings. The second path reflects what Americans want—an innovative patient-focused approach that gives you 3. Eliminates your risk of surprise medical more control and better choices at lower costs. bills through transparency and truth in advertising. Too many patients face high med- It’s a path that frees patients and doctors to make ical bills they did not expect and did not agree to care decisions and empowers innovators to produce pay. Transparent prices and truth in advertising better solutions at lower prices. It makes insurance are the first steps to resolving that problem. and care more affordable, while better protecting those with preexisting conditions and chronic health 4. Benefits you financially when you choose challenges. lower-cost, high-quality care. Prices for the same medical services can vary by thousands of Americans know we need real change. You want dollars. You should be able to benefit if you choose to be in charge of your health care without asking a lower-cost alternative that better suits your

1 needs. Congress should permanently eliminate ing seniors on Medicare. Congress should create regulatory barriers that keep you from being able broad, flexible access to these accounts so anyone to shop for value, and it should allow you to put any can use them in conjunction with more versatile savings you receive into a health savings account. plans, including those that provide high-quality care for chronic illness. 5. Gives you better options, lower premi- ums, and better access to doctors if you 9. Makes telehealth permanent so you can get sick, have a preexisting condition, talk “virtually” with medical care provid- and need financial help.Today, Congress ers. Telehealth allows patients to have access to sends money to insurance companies and imposes their doctors without long waits, trips to emergen- burdensome mandates that drive up the cost of cy rooms, and risking exposure to other sick pa- coverage for everyone. Instead, Congress should tients in a doctor’s office. Regulators cleared away give regulatory relief to states so they can reform barriers to telehealth during the pandemic, and their insurance markets. And it should convert the number of virtual doctors’ visits has soared in the subsidies that currently go to Medicaid ex- just a few months. Congress and the states should pansion and health insurance tax credits into make this temporary relief permanent and relax formula grants to the states to support coverage other barriers to unleash the full potential of new for lower-income and vulnerable patients. The care delivery options. grants would be distributed through the Chil- dren’s Health Insurance Program, with built-in 10. Offers more choices, lower prices, and life protections so taxpayer money can’t be used better quality by removing barriers to in- to fund abortions. novation and competition. Policymakers at the federal and state levels have imposed burden- 6. Gives you access to specialized plans and some mandates and regulations that discourage care if you have a chronic illness. Health competition, interfere with patients’ access to the insurance plans can perform better when they care of their choosing, and reward big businesses don’t try to be all things to all people. Instead, we and special interests at the expense of patients. should encourage plans that include centers of Examples include laws such as certificate-of-need excellence that cater to patients with specific med- regulations that create barriers to entry and rules ical problems, such as heart disease or diabetes. that prevent providers from practicing at the top Congress should clear away barriers that block of their licenses. this option. Congress and the states should lift those barriers to 7. Gives you more options to get insurance foster innovation and provide more and better options and care tailored to your needs and those for consumers to get lower prices and better quality of your family. Government rules that dictate through competition. every detail of insurance policies keep consumers from selecting plans that make the most sense. The debate today is between those who want to exert Congress should codify the administration’s rules even more government control over the health care on Association Health Plans and short-term poli- sector and those, like us, who favor giving patients cies, expanding the range of options for consumers more choice and control, and who support allowing to get coverage that meets their needs, including the creativity we have seen in the COVID-19 crisis the ability to choose a direct primary care doctor to flourish. or join a health care sharing ministry. We want a system that encourages innovation and 8. Makes it easier for you to manage your competition to provide consumers the best care at the own health care dollars. Millions of Amer- lowest cost. We welcome the opportunity to work with icans with high health costs are not eligible to policymakers to shape the better, brighter health care contribute to health savings accounts, includ- future we believe can be ahead.

2 SIGNATORIES

Marie Fishpaw Jessica Anderson Heather Higgins Star Parker The Heritage Foundation Heritage Action for America Independent Women’s Voice Center for Urban Renewal and Education Grace Marie Turner Garrett Bess Carrie Lukas Galen Institute Heritage Action for America Independent Women’s Forum Dick Patten American Business John Goodman Sally Pipes Grover Norquist Defense Council The Goodman Institute Pacific Research Institute Americans for Tax Reform Seton Motley Doug Badger Kevin Pham, M.D. Mary Mahoney Less Government Galen Institute and The The Daily Signal 60 Plus Association Heritage Foundation Mario Lopez Bob Moffit Andy Mangione Hispanic Leadership Fund Yuval Levin The Heritage Foundation AMAC American Enterprise Institute Robert Sade, M.D. Ed Haislmaier Hadley Heath Manning Medical University of The Honorable The Heritage Foundation Independent Women’s Forum South Carolina Rick Santorum former U.S. senator from Steve White, M.D. James Martin Robert Hamilton, M.D. Pennsylvania and Patriot Voices Catholic Medical Association 60 Plus Association FACS, Consumers for Health Care Reform The Honorable Richard Manning Bethany Marcum Newt Gingrich Americans for Limited Alaska Policy Forum Sean Sullivan former speaker of the Government Institute for Health and House of Representatives Joel Noble Productivity Management James Taylor Samaritan Ministries Joe DeSantis The Heartland Institute International Deborah Love Gingrich 360 Institute for Health and Michael Parker, M.D. Sal Nuzzo Productivity Management Joel White Catholic Medical Association The James Madison Institute Council for Affordable Lee Kurisko, M.D. Health Coverage C.L. Gray, M.D. Ramesh Ponnuru Physicians for Reform Physicians for Reform American Enterprise Institute Nina Owcharenko Schaefer Dan Perrin The Heritage Foundation Alfredo Ortiz Nancy Piotter HSA Coalition Job Creators Network Virginians for Quality Brian Blase Health Care Linda Gorman Galen Institute and Foundation Dave Hoppe Independence Institute for Government Accountability Hoppe Strategies Chad Savage, M.D. Docs 4 Patient Care Foundation Merrill Matthews Jonathan Imbody Tim Chapman Institute for Policy Innovation Freedom2Care Stand for America Hal Scherz, M.D. Docs 4 Patient Care Foundation David Wilson Lanhee Chen Joe Antos Wilson Partners Hoover Institution, American Enterprise Institute Thomas Schatz Stanford University Citizens Against Betsy McCaughey Saul Anuzis Government Waste Committee to Reduce Phil Kerpen 60 Plus Association Infection Deaths American Commitment Jennifer Schubert-Akin Louis Brown Jr. Steamboat Institute Affiliations listed for Richard Ralston Christ Medicus identification purposes only. Americans for Free Choice Roger Stark, M.D. in Medicine Dean Clancy Washington Policy Center This piece originally appeared Americans for Prosperity in The Daily Signal on Kyle Wingfield Elizabeth Wright September 22, 2020. Georgia Public Policy Ryan Ellis Citizens Against Foundation Center for a Free Economy Government Waste

Chris Denson Robert Fellner Elizabeth Stelle Georgia Public Policy Nevada Policy Commonwealth Foundation Foundation Research Institute Rep. Tan Parker Amy Anderson, DNP, RN Beverly Gossage Texas House of Representatives Texas Christian University HSA Benefits Consulting and University of North Texas Jenny Beth Martin Health Science Center John Hart Tea Party Patriots Action Patient Freedom Coalition Bob Carlstrom Brian Miller, M.D. Association of Mature American Rea Hederman The Johns Hopkins University Citizens (AMAC) Action Buckeye Institute School of Medicine

Derek Monson Alex Hendrie Charlie Sauer Sutherland Institute Americans for Tax Reform Market Institute