Rep. Kelly Outlines Patient-Centered Alternative to Obamacare

The American Health Care Reform Act – H.R. 3121 – is a commonsense, patient-centered alternative to the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) that will make health care insurance more affordable and more accessible to the most vulnerable Americans in a way that does not damage our economy or disrupt anyone's existing coverage. It achieves the following:

• Fully repeals President Obama's health care law, eliminating billions in taxes and thousands of pages of unworkable regulations and mandates that are driving up health care costs. 

• Spurs competition to lower health care costs by allowing Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines and enabling small businesses to pool together and get the same buying power as large corporations.

• Reforms medical malpractice laws in a commonsense way that limits trial lawyer fees and non-economic damages while maintaining strong protections for patients.

• Provides tax reform that allows families and individuals to deduct health care costs, just like companies, leveling the playing field and providing all Americans with a standard deduction for health insurance.

• Expands access to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), increasing the amount of pre-tax dollars individuals can deposit into portable savings accounts to be used for health care expenses.

• Safeguards individuals with pre-existing conditions from being discriminated against purchasing health insurance by bolstering state-based high risk pools and extending HIPAA guaranteed availability protections.

• Protects religious liberty and the unborn by ensuring no federal funding of abortions.

 The full text of the bill can be read here.

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Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) is a co-sponsor of the legislation and authored the following op-ed which appeared in the Sunday, September 29, 2013, edition of the Erie Times-News (also viewable here).

OP-ED: Republicans offer version of health-care reform
BY U.S. REP. MIKE KELLY

Two months before signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama proclaimed in his first State of the Union address, "After nearly a century of trying, ... we are closer than ever to bringing more security to the lives of so many Americans."

Unfortunately for all Americans -- young and old, students and workers, families and individuals -- the law came, but the security did not.

Instead, the ACA has been a source of unrivaled stress and confusion, causing premiums to skyrocket, health plans to be dropped, and jobs and wages to be threatened if not destroyed. It is therefore unsurprising that, according to virtually every single survey on the matter, most of the country simply does not approve of this law.

I share that sentiment, and since coming to Congress in 2011, I have seized every opportunity to repeal or at least reduce the ACA so that fewer Americans are harmed by its implementation. However, I also believe that effective, patient-centered health-care reform is a national imperative that, with the right guiding principles, can still be achieved. After all, the mantra "repeal and replace" only holds water if "replace" has a meaning.

That meaning can be found in a new comprehensive health-care reform bill that I am proudly co-sponsoring called the American Health Care Reform Act.

This common-sense alternative to the ACA, introduced by Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. R-Tenn., sets out to do what the president's health-care law fails to accomplish: make American medical care -- already the most sought-after in the world -- more affordable and more accessible to the most vulnerable among us in a way that does not damage our economy or disrupt anyone's existing coverage.

How do we achieve this?

Following a full repeal of the ACA, our plan begins with the affirmation that higher taxes, new regulations and more bureaucratic heavy-handedness are not solutions but setbacks to real cost-reducing reform. In any other industry, these things kill private sector jobs, stifle innovation and make services more expensive. Why would anyone believe that applying them to health care would produce a different outcome?

Instead, our plan operates on the principle that free market competition and maximized individual choice are not just worthy goals but downright indispensable components of patient-centered health-care reform. They are the best means of lowering costs and allowing medical innovation to keep advancing at the same time. Any plan that doesn't achieve and maintain both of these ends -- lower health-care costs, world-class medicine -- should be a non-starter. One is not an acceptable trade-off for the other.

The American Health Care Reform Act lowers costs through competition in two important ways. First, it finally permits Americans to shop for health insurance across state lines. No longer would a person in Ohio be forbidden from accessing a better plan in Pennsylvania, while someone in Pennsylvania could freely shop for a cheaper plan in New York. Second, it allows small businesses to pool together through Association Health Plans, granting them the same buying power as large corporations. This will enable employers to negotiate better rates on behalf of their employees.

Under our plan, families and individuals who get their insurance in the individual market will be put on more equal ground with those who receive insurance from their employer. Our bill will let those who purchase qualifying coverage claim a deduction of $7,500 for individuals or $20,000 for families against their payroll and income taxes, regardless of their plan's cost.

Additionally, our legislation expands access to health savings accounts and increases the amount of pretax dollars that Americans can contribute to portable HSAs for health-care expenses. It also lets employers offer larger benefits than current law permits for successful completion of wellness programs.

One of the most infamous drivers of health-care costs in America continues to be "defensive medicine." That's why a critical element of our plan is long-awaited tort reform, which would cap trial lawyers' fees and limit noneconomic damages while maintaining strong protections for victims of actual medical malpractice.

I wholeheartedly agree with most Americans that those with pre-existing conditions must be safeguarded from discrimination. Our bill strengthens state-based high-risk pools and extends current availability protections in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It also guarantees that anyone with a pre-existing condition can keep his or her coverage as they move between different insurance plans.

Finally, the American Health Care Reform Act respects the sanctity of both religious liberty and human life by prohibiting federal funding of abortion and excluding any requirement that any insurance plan must cover it.

Later in that same 2010 address, the president pleaded: "Don't walk away from reform. ... Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people. Let's get it done."

I couldn't agree more. Reform still requires repeal, yes. But real success will only be achieved when health care in America is actually affordable and accessible for everyone. It's possible. Let's get it done.

U.S. REP. MIKE KELLY, of Butler, represents the 3rd Congressional District, including Erie.

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