Healthcare
Medical decisions only belong between a patient and their doctors. Government bureaucrats have not place in medical decision making.
As a member of the U.S. Senate Rural Healthcare Caucus, I am committed to finding solutions to improving accessibility to quality care for those in rural parts of Oklahoma and our country. While health reform is needed to provide quality medical care and stem the ever growing cost of healthcare, government take-overs are never the answer.
I fully support the repeal and replacement of Obamacare with common-sense medical reform such as portable health insurance, medical malpractice reform, and increased ability of consumers to have more choices in health coverage. Government health take-overs only diminish quality of care, choices, and nothing to address skyrocketing costs. Any reforms that take away patient choice while giving control to the government will devastate the quality of patient care.
Addressing important healthcare issues is one of the biggest challenges we face. Our challenges are not only ensuring quality healthcare for our citizens, but addressing certain advances in research as well. Federally administered programs like Medicare and Medicaid continue to suffer budget shortfalls and gaps in coverage. Cautious comprehensive reform is needed that continues to preserve the solvency of these crucial programs.
During the 113th Congress I have cosponsored the following legislation to repeal portions or the entirety of President Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA) or to provide relief from the law for Americans:
- S. 40, American Liberty Restoration Act: Individual mandate repeal
- S. 133, Preserving Access to Targeted, Individualized, and Effective New Treatments and Services (PATIENTS) Act: Prevents HHS from using data obtained from research to delay or deny coverage
- S. 154. Preventing the Offering of Elective Coverage of Taxpayer-Funded-Abortion Act: Requires OPM to ensure that no multi-state qualified health plan offered in a health benefit exchange provides coverage of abortion.
- S.177, ObamaCare Repeal Act
- S. 183, Hospital Payment Fairness Act: Amends the PPACA to sunset the application of budget neutrality on a national basis in the calculation of the Medicare hospital wage index floor (reverts back to state-by-state adjustments)
- S. 232, Medical Device Access and Innovation Protection Act: Repeals ACA device tax
- S. 351, Protecting Seniors' Access to Medicare Act: Repeals IPAB
- S. 399, American Job Protection Act: Repeals employer mandate
- S. 603, Jobs and Premium Protection Act: Repeals annual fee on health insurance providers
- S. 610, Family Health Care Flexibility Act: Repeals ACA restrictions on HSAs, MSAs, and FSAs
- S. 862, Equitable Access to Care and Health (EACH) Act: Expands religious exemption from individual mandate
- S. 962, IRS Accountability Act: Prohibits ACA implementation funds to the IRS
- S. 983, Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act: Prohibits the Secretary of the Treasury from implementing or enforcing any part of the ACA
- S. 1154/S. 1272: Exchange Sunset Act: Eliminates exchanges if they fail to accept applications on Oct. 1
- S. 1204, Health Care Conscience Rights Act: An individual may not be required to purchase individual health insurance coverage that includes coverage of an abortion or other item or service to which the individual has a moral or religious objection and insurers may provide appropriate plans
- S. 1292, Defund Obamacare Act of 2013
- S. 1488, a bill to delay the individual and employer mandates
- S. 1490, a bill to delay the applicatioon of the PPACA
- S. 1497, No Exemption for Washington from Obamacare Act: Eliminates premium subsidies for Congress and staff and extends exchange requirement to executive branch
- S. 1525, Trust But Verify/PIN Act: Requires certification of safety of personal health and financial information before exchanges can offer insurance
- S. 1590, Exchange Information Disclosure Act: Requires weekly reports on exchange enrollment website and activity
- S. 1592, the Delay Until Fully Functional Act: Delays individual mandate and requires GAO studies and reports until HHS-IG can certify
- S. 1617, If You Like Your Plan You Can Keep It Act: Expands grandfathering of health plans to include any plan currently in existence
- S. 1647, Restoring Access to Medication Act: Repeals provisions of the ACA that restrict payments from health savings accounts, medical savings accounts, and health flexible spending arrangements for medications to prescription drugs and insulin only (thus allowing payments for over-the-counter medications).
- S. 1666, Healthcare Privacy and Anti-Fraud Act: Sets minimum training standards for health care navigators, penalizes those navigators who misuse personal information, and protects individuals from fraudulent health care navigators
- S. 1724, Union Tax Fairness Act: Ensures that the reinsurance fee for the transitional reinsurance program under the ACA be applied equally to all health insurance issuers and group health plans.
- S. 1726, Obamacare Taxpayer Bailout Prevention Act: Eliminates the risk corridor program
- S. 1735, Self-Insurance Protection Act: Protects the ability of small and mid-sized businesses to continue offering insurance to their employees by preserving self-insurance as an option for businesses of all sizes so that employers are not forced to enroll their employees into the Obamacare exchanges.
- S. 1848, Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act: Amends the ACA concerning the notice requirements regarding the extent of health plan coverage of abortion and abortion premium surcharges.
- S. 1849, Premium Disclosure Act: Provides for a fixed annual open enrollment period.
- S. 1894, Health Insurance Accountability Act: Repeals ACA if it is determined that it resulted in increasing the number of uninsured individuals.
- S. 2106, Freeing Americans from Inequitable Requirements Act (FAIR) of 2014: Delays the Obamacare individual mandate penalty whenever the employer mandate is delayed.
- S. AMDT. 30 to H.R. 933: to prohibit the use of funds to carry out the PPACA
- S. AMDT. 185 to S.CON.RES.8: to prohibit HHS from using funds for the implementation or mgmt of health benefit exchanges until CMS certifies that implementation of PPACA have resulted in a reduction in the avg health insurance premiums for Americans of $2500
- S. AMDT. 186 to S.CON.RES.8: to protect all patients by prohibiting the use of data obtained from comparative effectiveness research to deny coverage of items/services under Federal health care programs and to ensure that CER accts for advancements in genomics & personalized medicine, the unique needs of health disparity populations, and differences in the treatment response and the treatment preferences of patients
- S. AMDT. 187 to S.CON.RES.8: to prohibit the use of funds for promotional or marketing materials promoting the PPACA or its benefits
- S. AMDT. 202 to S.CON.RES.8: to establish a DNRF to provide for the repeal of the PPACA and the HCERA and to encourage patient-centered reforms to improve health outcomes and reduce health care costs, promoting economic growth
- S. AMDT. 298 to S.CON.RES.8: to repeal the $130B job-crushing mandate so employers can continue to grow, create new jobs, expand the economy, and provide families with more coverage of their choice
- S. AMDT. 924 to S. 954: Prohibition on transfer of funds for ACA implementation
- S. AMDT. 1580 to S. 744: Prohibition on PPACA funding
- S. AMDT. 1866 to S. 1392: Puts Congress, staff, and executive political appointees on exchanges without premium subsidies
- S. AMDT. 1967 to H.J. Res. 59: Puts Congress, staff, and executive political appointees on exchanges without premium subsidies
