By Dave Andrusko
Understandably, most of the attention this week focused on the Senate rejection of the Blunt Amendment, which would repeal the Obama mandate forcing religiously affiliated organizations to cover contraception and sterilization in their health insurance plans, even in cases where the institution opposes it on moral or conscience grounds. That is unfortunate, but there is more action to come, starting with the Republican-controlled House, where the same legislation has 220 co-sponsors.
But another important battle was waged this week in the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee. By a lopsided 17-5 vote, the subcommittee recommended repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB)–one of the principal mechanisms by which the Obama health care law (ObamaCare) would limit access to life-saving medical treatment.
Every Republican and several Democrats on the subcommittee supported The Medicare Decisions Accountability Act (HR 452), which is sponsored by Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) and 226 co-sponsors. The House is likely to pass the bill. Whether it stalls in the Democratically-controlled Senate—and Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-Nv.) doubtless does not want this debate and this vote—this is an important step forward.
National Right to Life outlined its strong support for HR452 in a letter to subcommittee members. NRLC noted that “[t]he Obama law directs the Board to issue recommendations to limit what ordinary citizens and their health insurance coverage can pay for medical treatment so as to prevent it from keeping up with the rate of medical inflation.”
The letter also noted that in order to “implement these recommendations, the Department of Health and Human Services is empowered to impose so-called ‘quality’ and ‘efficiency’ measures on health care providers. Doctors who violate a ‘quality’ standard by prescribing more life-saving medical treatment than it permits will be disqualified from contracting with any of the health insurance plans that individual Americans, under the Obama Health Care Law, will be mandated to purchase.”
This means that treatment a doctor and patient deem advisable to save that patient’s life or preserve or improve the patient’s health–but which exceeds the standard imposed by the government–will be denied even if the patient is willing and able to pay for it. Repeal of IPAB is critically important to prevent this rationing of life-saving medical treatment.
“Repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) is critical to prevent the rationing of life-saving medical treatment,” said Burke Balch, J.D., director of National Right to Life’s Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics. “The IPAB would recommend drastic limits for the Department of Health and Human Services to impose on what Americans are allowed to spend out of their own funds to save their own lives and the lives of their families.”
“Simply put, the IPAB is bad medicine,” added Balch. “It is outrageous that a government entity would be allowed to dictate and limit what Americans could spend – of their own money – to save their own lives.”
For further details and documentation, see: http://nrlc.co/y5Dcrj
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