Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MILLER-MEEKS. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 485, the Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act.

Quality-adjusted life years, or QALYs, are a metric used to assign a dollar value on someone's life and ration healthcare treatments accordingly, often discriminating against those with disabilities.

This isn't the first time we have heard this. I remember a former President, in advocating for the Affordable Care Act, said if someone has a broken hip, and they are elderly, they are just going to have to deal with it.

Current law prevents the Secretary of Health and Human Services from using QALYs in Medicare specifically in a manner that treats extending the life of an elderly, disabled, or terminally ill individual as of lower value.

This legislation simply extends the QALYs prohibition to other Federal healthcare programs not included under current law.

As a doctor, it is outrageous for government bureaucrats to determine whether a person's life is worth saving.

It is interesting to hear the other side of the aisle concerned about cost after advancing the Affordable Care Act when they knew it would lead to increased costs, increased premiums, which it has done, and patients losing their doctors and their healthcare plans.

If my colleagues are concerned about veterans' affairs, I happen to be the chair of the Health Subcommittee of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs. We can introduce this there, as well.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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