Republicans are set to take control of the House of Representatives this Jan. 3 for the first time in four years. They should use their newfound narrow majority to detail a clear vision for healthcare reform.
Boosting competition and choice has long been at the center of the GOP’s healthcare agenda. Empowering patients to be buyers, and forcing providers to compete for their business, is a recipe for lower costs and higher quality. That effort starts with insisting on price transparency. Hospitals have been required to publish their prices since the beginning of last year, thanks to a rule issued during the Trump administration. But less than two-thirds of hospitals are compliant, according to research published in the third quarter of 2022 by Turquoise Health. The government recently fined two Georgia hospitals for failing to publish their prices. Republicans must ensure that hospitals are held accountable on a wider scale.
STATE REPUBLICANS WARM TO MEDICAID EXPANSION
Price transparency can enhance the effectiveness of health savings accounts, which allow people to save money pretax and then spend it on healthcare. When people are spending their own dollars, they’re more likely to shop around for the best combination of price and quality.
Right now, people must have a qualifying high-deductible plan to contribute to a health savings account. This year, Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA) introduced legislation that would permit Medicare beneficiaries to contribute to HSAs. Two Republicans signed on as co-sponsors. Ideas like this one deserve to advance in the next Congress.
A Republican House can also consider expanding access to short-term health plans. These plans don’t have to comply with Obamacare’s many cost-inflating regulations. So their premiums are lower than those for exchange coverage. The plans last no more than 364 days and can be renewed by insurers for up to 36 months.
Many Democrats have been calling on President Joe Biden to restrict access to short-term plans in hopes of driving the people who use them onto the exchanges. A Republican House must resist those efforts. Republicans have no shortage of ideas for enhancing competition in the healthcare marketplace. They need to start making the case for those ideas this January.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM RESTORING AMERICA
Sally C. Pipes is president, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith fellow in healthcare policy at the Pacific Research Institute. Her latest book is False Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All (Encounter 2020). Follow her on Twitter @sallypipes.
