Health Care

Health Care

As a physician with more than 30 years of experience, taking care of patients has been my life’s work. I know firsthand that our health care system is broken. The cost of care is skyrocketing, too many Americans still have trouble getting insurance, and frivolous lawsuits make care more expensive without improving quality. Since my election to Congress, I have tried to work with leaders from both parties to reform our system. I would put the free market to work for patients, in order to lower costs, improve the quality of care, while preserving the doctor-patient relationship.

Affordable Care Act

I voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the last Congress, and have since been leading the charge to repeal the law and replace it with commonsense reforms.

As the author of a resolution expressing the sentiment that the ACA was unconstitutional (H.Res. 475), I was disappointed when the Supreme Court failed to strike down the individual mandate and find this flawed law unconstitutional. In response to this ruling, the House passed H.R. 6079, the Repeal of Obamacare Act, with my support on July 11, 2012. 

It is important to remember, however, that the court only determined the constitutionality of the ACA. It did not rule on whether the law improves our country’s health care system. While I hoped for a different outcome from the Court, I still strongly believe that this law will have terrible consequences for American families and the economy. 

Though supporters of the law claim it will lower health care costs, give more choice to Americans regarding their care, and offer a higher quality of services, this law will do just the opposite. When Tennessee adopted TennCare—a proposal similar to the ACA—in the 1990s, it failed both to keep costs under control and to extend universal coverage. The cost of the program tripled within 10 years, putting an unbearable strain on the state budget. Additionally, access to health care for TennCare beneficiaries was poor.

We already have evidence showing that the president’s plan is not working as promised. The average cost of a family plan increased by 9 percent in 2011, one year after the ACA became law of the land. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) believes that employers will create 800,000 fewer jobs between now and 2021 as a result of the law’s punitive policies. CBO also projects that as many as 20 million Americans could lose their employer-provided insurance as a result of the president’s health care law. Finally, this law increased or created 21 taxes which will raise more than $675 billion over the next 10 years.

I support repealing the ACA and replacing it with reforms that put patients first. I believe that the tax treatment of health care should be the same for all Americans, regardless of where they receive their insurance. Small businesses should be allowed to pool together to purchase insurance, and families should be able to purchase insurance across state lines. We must reform the medical liability system to prevent frivolous lawsuits. Finally, the American people should be able to buy their medicine from anywhere in the world—as long as it’s safe. By adopting these commonsense ideas, among others, we can create a health care system that controls costs, increases access to care, and improves quality.

IPAB

Among the worst parts of the ACA is the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). The IPAB is an unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy that has been granted sweeping powers to “reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending.” Medicare cuts proposed by the IPAB are to be considered using “fast track” procedures and—absent a three-fifths vote of the Senate—Congress can only modify the type of cuts, not the amount. Should Congress fail to act on the board’s recommendations, they automatically go into effect. To make matters worse, the IPAB is exempt from administrative or judicial review.

I have grave concerns that the IPAB will function as a denial-of-care board that will slash Medicare payments just to meet an arbitrary budget. It is likely that the IPAB’s proposed cuts will include reduced payments to physicians and other health care providers. Given that Medicare currently pays physicians only 80% of what private insurers do, any additional cuts could severely limit patients’ access to care.

I am the sponsor of H.R. 452, the Medicare Decisions Accountability Act, which would repeal the IPAB. This bill passed the House of Representatives in March 2012 with my support as part of H.R. 5, the Protecting Access to Health Care Act.