Providing relief from Obamacare and creating a patient-centered system is a multi-step process.
As the Senate continues to work on its legislation, here in the House we’re pushing forward on a parallel track to pass a number of targeted reform bills like we promised. These bills help expand Americans’ options and put patients in control of their healthcare -- here’s a quick breakdown:
Reforming standards for medical malpractice lawsuits. Today, too many frivolous medical lawsuits can clog up our healthcare system and drive up healthcare costs. While it’s always important to provide protection for patients, we need to reintroduce common sense and fiscal sanity back into this system. We passed the Protecting Access to Care Act (H.R. 1215), which caps non-economic damages at $250,000 (while keeping economic damages uncapped) and puts new limits on contingency fees on lawyers, so patients can keep more of their damage awards. This means lower healthcare costs for families.
Protecting taxpayer dollars from waste, fraud, and abuse. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), too many healthcare subsidies were handed out without verifying the applicant’s eligibility or status as a U.S. citizen. The House passed the Verify First Act (H.R. 2581), with my support, to make sure refundable tax credits are only given to eligible individuals and U.S. citizens.
Increasing options for Americans experiencing unemployment. Under COBRA, Americans who have lost their job still have access to health insurance they received through work – but they must pay the full cost of their premium, which can be prohibitively expensive. My friend Rep. Pat Tiberi introduced the Broader Options for Americans Act (H.R. 2579) to allow individuals who find themselves in this situation to be able to use the new tax credits created under the American Health Care Act (AHCA) to subsidize the purchase of COBRA continuation coverage. It passed the House with my support.
Protecting veterans’ access to healthcare. We voted to pass the VETERAN Act (H.R. 2372) which codifies existing regulations to ensure that veterans have the option to purchase private health insurance under the ACA or the AHCA, using refundable tax credits.
As a doctor, making our healthcare system work better for the patients it serves is one of my top priorities. I’ll keep you posted as I continue to fight for lower costs, more options, and better care.
Yours in service,
P.S. Would you like to continue receiving updates about my work to provide relief from Obamacare? If so, be sure to subscribe to my email updates here.
