WASHINGTON, DC - The Subcommittee on Health, chaired by Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-PA), today held a hearing examining health care solutions that would improve pre-existing condition protections, lower patient costs, and encourage plan innovation without government mandates.
“We must make health care costs more transparent and give people the freedom to choose the insurance that they want - with the benefits they value most at a price that is fair," stated Chairman Pitts. “More government bureaucracy, regulations, and spending never successfully reduce the price of health care. Yet that is exactly the premise of how health insurance is regulated today - with top down mandates that empower Washington and remove control over health care decisions from states, small businesses, families and individuals. This has to be changed if we truly want bottom up solutions that provide better care at lower costs for patients."
“Protecting our most vulnerable patients with pre-existing condition safeguards is just as much about helping them keep health coverage as it is about creating an environment for them to get health coverage. Continued enrollment can lead to lower costs and stable markets, which gives consumers a pathway to choose more innovative options," stated full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI). “Today, we will talk about ways to achieve this through market reforms instead of government mandates, like encouraging states to lower costs through premium reduction programs. Options, like advanced high risk pools, can also open new access points to the market while helping keep patient costs down."
Health Subcommittee Vice Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) highlighted the importance of not just making sure people get health insurance, but that they are able to keep the insurance they like, saying, “Medicare Part D incentivizes participation by using late enrollment assessments. Patients are encouraged to join Medicare Part D in their initial enrollment period because if they choose not to, their premium will be slightly higher." Guthrie then asked if this type of model would be successful in the private health insurance market. Mr. Roy, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute said that he believed it would be. Watch the exchange here.
Rep. Larry Bucshon, M.D. (R-IN) spoke to how critical it is for the rising costs of care to be addressed, stating, “the people I talk to, health care costs are going up for everyone." Bucshon also referenced a recent Gallup poll that revealed that health care costs top American families’ financial concerns. After pointing out that a lot goes into rates - including experience, trends, taxes, medical loss ratio, and other mandates under the president’s law - he asked a witness defending the status quo to identify one government mandate that could be eased to alleviate costs. Watch the clip here.
Additional information on today’s hearing, including a background memo, witness testimony and an archived video can be found on our website here.
