House Republican Members of Congress have been working since early last year on their “Commitment to America” recommendations to strengthen the economy, keep us safe, advance freedom, and make government accountable.
The proposals are being released this morning at an event in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, with Leader Kevin McCarthy and other House leaders.
This is an important effort to show the America people that they can do more than be against whatever new tax-spend-regulate schemes the Pelosi leadership offers.
Leader McCarthy had appointed Task Forces to tackle specific issues, including health care, that he’s committed to advancing if Republicans take control of the House of Representatives in the fall elections.
I wrote about this process earlier this year, explaining that each task force has up to 18 members, drawn from various committees to overcome the obstacles involving committee jurisdiction that often impede progress. Too many bills have failed in the past because leaders didn’t even have buy in from their own team.
President Biden taunted Republicans in January, asking repeatedly “What are Republicans for?” Republicans have been gathering for countless meetings on Capitol Hill to answer Biden’s question. Members are definitely invested in the ideas they have developed in this process.
We are, of course, particularly interested in the Healthy Future task force, jointly chaired by Reps. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky and Vern Buchanan of Florida, and I am pleased to see a number of important health policy recommendations the Galen Institute and our colleagues in many other think tanks in the freedom movement have been offering. It’s an agenda that puts doctors and patients rather than government bureaucrats in charge of health care decisions.
The Commitment document is full of targeted reforms—such as:
- enabling states to approve a wider variety of health plans to facilitate more competition and affordability
- encouraging more portable health coverage
- giving small business more options for competitively priced insurance for their employees
- making Health Savings Accounts accessible to more people to personalize their health care and save for future needs
- removing barriers for employers to participate in direct contracting, high performance networks, and centers of excellence
- providing greater access to new technologies
- speeding approval of new treatments
- empowering patients with more choices of plans and doctors, ownership of their health records, and easier ways to get quality care, including telehealth.
After our heart! This is only a sample of dozens of specific recommendations in the package.
This is not a major overhaul of the American health sector nor a plan to redesign one-sixth of the American economy. Americans have no appetite for that.
Instead, it builds on what is working, realigns incentives to facilitate choice, competition, and affordability, and works to strengthen the availability of quality care.
Our patient-centered approach to health reform builds on market solutions. Theirs uses the heavy hand of government to control virtually every aspect of care and coverage. We’ll see in November which side wins.
