The Committee on Energy and Commerce will met in open markup session on Wednesday, September 23, 2009, at 10:00 a.m., in room 2123 Rayburn House Office Building, to consider a motion to instruct the Chairman to transmit to the Committee on Rules additional recommended amendments for consideration in connection with H.R. 3200, the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-MI., presented Republican ideas for healthcare reform as an amendment to H.R. 3200, the Democratic Health Bill. These ideas included:

• Health Insurance for All- This amendment would ensure insurance coverage for all Americans, by requiring states to have high-risk pools, allowing those with pre-existing conditions to pool their purchasing power and collectively mitigate their individual risks, and providing Federal subsidies to help make these pools financially viable.
  
• Eliminate Rescissions- This amendment would eliminate rescissions, ensuring that all people who have insurance policies aren't dropped from coverage due to the development of a medical condition.
  
• No Rationing- This amendment would prevent government bureaucrats from using comparative effectiveness research to dictate treatment options to doctors and ration vital health care.
  
• Remove State Barriers- This amendment would bring down the cost of insurance by allowing individuals to buy healthcare plans across state lines, giving all Americans access to health plans whose costs haven't been driven up by costly, inefficient state mandates. For example, A 25 year-old male in good health can obtain a healthcare policy for $960 in Kentucky. A similar policy would cost $5,880 in New Jersey because of costly state coverage mandates.
  
• Insurance Pools- This amendment would allow Americans to create Individual Membership Associations, which would allow the creation of purchasing pools outside of one's employment. Allowing consumers to pool their own purchasing power will afford them the ability to negotiate better rates with insurers, while granting Americans more freedom in choosing the healthcare plan that's right for them. This ability to pool purchasing power would be extended to small businesses as well.
  
• Wellness and Prevention- This amendment would allow employers to provide insurance premium discounts to employees who participate in prevention and wellness programs. These programs encourage people to take proactive responsibility for their own health, promoting longer lifespans, healthier lifestyles, and lower care costs.
  
• SCHIP/Medicaid Choice- This amendment would provide low-income Americans with alternatives to subpar welfare health programs such as Medicaid or SCHIP by allowing these individuals to use their share of Medicaid or SCHIP funds to purchase high quality private insurance.
  
• Medical Liability Reform- This amendment would institute common-sense liability protections to reduce the costs of "defensive medicine" to the healthcare system. Defensive medicine is the term used to describe unnecessary tests and procedures which are conducted to prevent lawsuits. Currently, these extraneous procedures are estimated to costs roughly $70 billion a year. Furthermore, studies also show that the medical tort system fails injured patients with claims taking on average five years to resolve and roughly 60 cents out of every dollar spent in the malpractice system going to lawyers or administrative costs.
  
• Waste, Fraud and Abuse- This amendment would ensure that the Office of the Inspector General for HHS is robustly funded to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in our current health system.
  

Due to procedural restrictions, this amendment could not be voted on in the markup. For text of this amendment, click here.

For more information on these Republican ideas, click here.

An amendment offered by Reps. Joe Barton, R-TX., Michael Burgess, R-TX., and Gene Green, D-TX., would bring a greater level of transparency to the healthcare market. This would be accomplished on two fronts, first by requiring all qualified health plans as determined by the new Health Choices Commissioner to disclose their cost sharing provisions for coverage (including deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance levels) to both individuals and care providers. Additionally, this amendment would require hospitals to disclose prices for the most common inpatient and outpatient hospital procedures. These prices would then be made available on the internet, empowering Americans with the informed choices they need to bring greater competition to the marketplace. In turn, this competition will bring lower prices, greater efficiency, and higher quality. This amendment passed by a vote of 51 to 0.

For text of this amendment and a detailed vote tally, click here.

An amendment offered by Rep. Michael Burgess, R-TX., would prevent the Secretary of HHS from dictating to healthcare providers how much they can charge the Government insurance plan for services provided to the plan's enrollees. This amendment would eliminate one of the many anti-competitive benefits granted to the new government plan, and help slow the inevitable crowd-out of private insurers from the American healthcare system. Additionally, this amendment would help prevent healthcare providers from going out of business due to government mandated underpayments. This amendment would be a step towards keeping the President's promise that Americans can retain access to their doctor if they so choose. This amendment was voted down, 31 to 21.

For text of this amendment and a detailed vote tally, click here.

An amendment offered by Rep. Lee Terry, R-NE., would instill a greater level of transparency over the activities of the new Health Choices Commissioner. Given the extensive new powers granted to the Commissioner by H.R. 3200, including the power to issue standard benefit mandates, a high level of transparency will be necessary to bring about an acceptable level of accountability. This amendment would require the Commissioner to disclose all communications with lobbyists, interest groups, and members of Congress, to help ensure that the Commissioner's actions remain motivated by the interests of the American people. This amendment was voted down, 35 to 21.

For a copy of this amendment and a detailed vote tally, click here.

The motion to instruct the Chairman to transmit to the Committee on Rules additional recommended amendments for consideration in connection with H.R. 3200, the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, passed by a vote of 28 to 22. For a detailed vote tally, click here.