Issue Position: Health Care

Issue Position

1.) We must make health care more affordable by addressing the rapidly rising cost of health care.

Health care consumers should have better access to price and quality data in order to make cost-conscious and prudent decisions about their care.

Health care providers could post their direct pay prices for their most common procedures.

Medicare, Medicaid, and other data could be made available to third party entities more adept at providing meaningful quality comparisons than the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Reforms, such as allowing for additional pooling mechanisms and the selling of insurance across state lines, would put downward pressure on premium costs. In addition, leveling the tax field for those in the individual and employer markets would help individuals trying to purchase insurance on their own.

2.) Individuals need more choices and the ability to select plans that best fit their needs.

Reforms should be made to allow employers to design wellness programs with rewards available that cover a higher percentage of the cost of an employee's coverage.

These programs incentivize individuals to take control of their health while also lowering their out of pocket health care costs.

The list of permissible uses for tax-free health savings account dollars should be expanded. In addition, individuals should be able to roll over from year-to-year a portion of their unused dollars in flexible spending accounts.

The government should not impose a long list of mandates on insurance companies that make plans unnecessarily expensive. For instance, not all individuals need to purchase coverage for maternity care or pediatric dental and vision services. Individuals should be allowed to purchase the specific coverage that meets their needs.

Reforms should be made to provide for increased access to lower cost insurance.
We should ensure that our laws encourage individuals and businesses to pool together (i.e., through association health plans and individual membership accounts) in order to purchase insurance in the individual market.

3.) We must ensure individuals have access to health insurance including those with pre-existing conditions.

The tax treatment of health care in the individual and employer market should be aligned.

Individuals seeking to purchase insurance through the individual market are currently disadvantaged as they do not receive a tax benefit for the purchase of insurance. Those purchasing insurance in the individual market should be eligible for a similar tax benefit.

Reforms could be made so that individuals with pre-existing conditions are able to purchase affordable coverage

For instance, changes could be made to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 so that individuals with pre-existing conditions moving from employer-sponsored coverage to the individual market are protected and can find coverage.

Another option would be to support state high-risk pools.

Consumers should be able to purchase insurance across state lines. Currently, state mandates requiring coverage of specific benefits range from a low of 13 to a high of 70. Individuals should be able to purchase lower cost plans that meet their specific health needs.

4.) We must protect the doctor-patient relationship. Decisions about care should be left to doctors, patients, and their families. We should increase the quality of care by instituting physician-developed quality measures.

Physicians know best when it comes to treating their patients. We should ensure that regulations do not get in the way of patient care.

Currently, physicians must participate in a myriad of government reporting programs that limit the amount of time they can spend with patients and do little to increase the actual quality of care. We should institute physician-developed quality measures and provide real-time feedback to physicians in order to enhance the patient experience and produce better outcomes

5.) We Must Save Medicare

The current Medicare structure incentivizes quantity over quality and the program's price controls distort the entire health care market. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, private plans should be able to compete against traditional Medicare. Private plans have already been very successful in the Part D prescription drug program. A national survey released in October 2012 finds that 9 out of 10 seniors are satisfied with their Medicare prescription drug plan. Similar reforms could be made to Parts A and B of Medicare (the portions covering hospital and physician care) that would provide beneficiaries with greater plan choice.

Under premium support, individuals would be able to choose between these private plans and Medicare. If an individual selected a cheaper plan, he would retain the savings. Beneficiaries interested in selecting a more expensive plan could elect to do so and pay the difference.

The premium support level should be set to ensure that health care inflation does not outpace the amount of premium support provided to individuals.
Reforms could also include an increase in the Medicare eligibility age, changes to the rules for supplemental insurance coverage, and means testing for premiums and cost-sharing.

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