Healthcare reform is a series of policies that change the rules that govern how Americans get the medical care they need. Regulations can modify or alter the behavior of many different actors, including individual consumers, doctors, health insurance agents, and other health care providers. They can also impose limits on the availability and cost of certain services, establish standards for the provision of medical care, and provide incentives to drive quality improvements.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has already brought substantial benefits to millions of people. It ended discrimination against pre-existing conditions, helped families afford health insurance, and put our budget and economy on a sounder fiscal path. Its consumer protections and transparency provisions give individuals control over their own health care decisions, and its free preventive services coverage helps keep more than 137 million Americans healthy and on the road to wellness.
But the work of reforming our health system has barely begun. Thousands of Americans still struggle to pay for physician visits and medications; afford their deductibles and copays; and navigate a bewildering system. Even more are left uninsured.
The 119th Congress has an enormous opportunity to advance long-overdue policies that will help millions of Americans reclaim their power to choose their own health care. These include reversing Medicare’s looming 2.8% cuts; ensuring a sustainable Medicare payment model for independent physicians and eliminating the onerous prior authorization process; and enacting targeted reforms to statutory budget neutrality requirements that would allow for an annual inflation update for physicians.