Key facts
- The Fair Care Act, introduced by Rep. Bruce Westerman, aims to reform US healthcare.
- The bill seeks to achieve universal and affordable coverage by strengthening the individual market and creating high-risk pools.
- It proposes expanding consumer choice and focusing financial assistance on those most in need.
- The legislation targets hospital consolidation and prescription drug pricing abuses.
- The Fair Care Act aims to increase the number of insured Americans while maintaining fiscal discipline.
Republicans have introduced a new healthcare reform bill, the Fair Care Act, aiming to address affordability and coverage concerns. The legislation, first introduced in 2018 and updated by Rep. Bruce Westerman, seeks to achieve universal and affordable coverage by strengthening the individual insurance market, restoring the age rating system, and creating invisible high-risk pools to lower premiums for healthier individuals. It also aims to provide consumers with more choices in insurance plans, moving away from employer- or government-selected options.
The bill focuses on fairness to taxpayers by directing assistance to those with the greatest need, including lower-income families and individuals with serious health conditions. It proposes a market-based alternative to the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion by extending premium subsidies to those below the poverty line and expanding eligibility to households earning between 400 and 600 percent of the poverty line. Savings for these improvements would come from reforms like adjusting Medicare subsidies for high-net worth seniors.
Furthermore, the Fair Care Act aims to expand competition and reduce the power of healthcare monopolies. It addresses hospital consolidation by offering consolidated systems a choice: either divest hospitals to increase competition or accept lower prices. The bill also seeks to eliminate loopholes that encourage hospitals to acquire physician practices and incentivizes states to address anti-competitive provider behavior.
On prescription drugs, the legislation intends to curb abuses that prolong monopolies and create a more efficient approval pathway for new therapies, thereby reducing research and development costs. The bill also includes provisions for malpractice reform and permanent telehealth expansion. The authors argue that the US pays more for healthcare while delivering worse outcomes compared to other industrialized nations, and the Fair Care Act is presented as a solution to improve both affordability and effectiveness.