The Ripon Society recently hosted a discussion with four members of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health who are at the forefront of the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Reps. Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.), Adrian Smith (R-Neb.), Tom Price (R-Ga.) and Kevin Brady (R-Texas) discussed replacing ACA with new reforms that would control costs, eliminate red tape and put patients and doctors in control of health decisions.
Moving forward, Gerlach said, the obligation of Republicans is to identify problems with the healthcare law and offer a positive agenda to correct them.
“…We have to help our constituents through a problem that we didn’t create with our vote,” Gerlach said.
Brady said the subcommittee had three goals this session. The first goal was to spotlight the rollout, implementation and impact of ACA, the second goal was to find a reliable solution to reimburse physicians and the third goal was to bring about structural reforms to Medicare.
“…(Physicians are) rethinking their relationship with Medicare, and they’re rethinking their private practices at a time when the senior population is skyrocketing,” Brady said. “If there’s any population that needs to see a doctor they know and one who knows them, it’s our seniors. And the truth of the matter is, we can’t really take the necessary steps to fix Medicare until we solve this in a very positive way.”
Price noted that Republicans have been united in their opposition to ACA and are more cohesive now than in October.
“Republicans probably have too many plans as opposed to too few,” Price said. “I’m confident that we’re talking with the Ways and Means (Committee) folks and the leadership to make sure that we have a legislative proposal hopefully in the first quarter of next year that will put our arms around the things that we know can be done in good ways…”
Smith said he recently met with a leading scientist who is concerned about the impact the healthcare law will have on innovation.
“… I am really concerned by just the complexities of Obamacare alone, not to mention the fact that it didn’t even address some of the realities of (Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate)…” Smith said.