Washington Report: Alternative Approaches to Health Care Reform

  Earlier this week, the President invited opponents of Obamacare to “tell us specifically what you’d do differently to cut costs, cover more people, make insurance more secure.” 

House Republicans have introduced more than 200 health care related bills and several specific legislative ideas to fix the health care law and make other improvements to the health care system.  For example, I introduced the Administrative Relief and Accurate Medicare Payments Act, which reforms the auditing of Medicare payments to maintain programmatic integrity while ensuring hospitals can better focus their resources and staff on serving patients.

While there is general agreement on the problems in our health care system, there has been less agreement on solutions.  Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010 with no Republican votes in the House or Senate, and have blocked most of our efforts to improve or delay certain harmful provisions of the law.

However, Republicans need to learn from mistakes made by Democrats in passing the law.  America is a divided nation.  We should not expect to get everything we want, and we need to do a better job of communicating and finding common ground to make improvements to the health care system.  Real reform should have buy-in from both parties, and more importantly, buy-in from the American people.

Health insurance works better with a consumer-based market than under the heavy hand of the federal government.  Individuals should have the choice to purchase the insurance matching their unique health needs and household budget.  History shows a consumer-driven market also would encourage greater participation and reduce costs.

We can make the health insurance market more open and market-driven by making insurance companies compete nationwide – giving Americans the freedom to purchase plans across state lines.  We can also allow small businesses and other groups to pool together to purchase insurance to meet their needs in the same way a large business does.

We could guarantee people with pre-existing conditions can get affordable coverage by restoring high risk pools and expanding portability of coverage.  We could reduce costs for families by providing a tax deduction for all health insurance, allowing individuals and families to save for medical expenses in Health Savings Accounts, cracking down on junk lawsuits, and improving medical billing transparency so patients know what they are paying.
These are just some of the alternative ideas put forward to improve our health care system, reduce costs for providers and consumers, and improve access to care.  However, neither party can claim to have all the answers.  We must begin to discuss these and other ideas and find common ground.  If both sides remain deadlocked in the status quo, we are not likely to get needed reforms and consumers will continue to suffer.
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Sincerely,

ADRIAN SMITH
Member of Congress