Washington, DC–U.S. Senator Pat Roberts today introduced a bill to protect the doctor patient relationship and to end health care rationing by the federal government as authorized in Obamacare.
“In the absence of a full repeal of Obamacare, we need to fight the further intrusion of the federal government into the relationship between doctors and patients,” Senator Roberts said. “This intrusion through four unaccountable government agencies is hidden under the cloak of innovation and prevention and is one of the most damaging threats to the quality of health care in America. My bill repeals the four rationing bodies that seek to limit options for care under the misconception that health care is one size-fits-all.”
Senator Roberts introduced the Four Rationers Repeal Act of 2014. It repeals the following rationing bodies:
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Center: the “Innovation Center” is aimed at finding innovative ways to reform payment and delivery models. It gives the government new powers to cut payments to Medicare beneficiaries with the goal of increasing innovation but in reality reducing patients’ ability to access the care they want and need.
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force: This preventive services task force used to be a body that was scientific and academic, that reviewed treatment, testing, and preventive health data and made recommendations for primary care practitioners and health systems. Because of Obamacare, the task force can now decide what should and should NOT be covered by health plans. If the task force doesn’t recommend it, then it won’t be covered by health plans and patients will bear the cost of the procedure.
Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute: Conducts comparative effectiveness research, also known as CER, which should be used to inform decisions between doctors and their patients but under Obamacare will limit treatment options for individuals.
Independent Payment Advisory Board: The Board is made up of 15 unelected bureaucrats who will decide which treatments in Medicare coverage should be taken away. They have no accountability and their decisions are practically impossible to overturn.
“I’ve been talking about the four rationers for a long time and what it means to patients. What really scares me, as I watch all the other warnings and broken promises come true, is what is going to happen to Kansans back home when the warnings about the four rationers come true. Access to quality care will be a thing of the past for Americans.”
During the debate on Obamacare, Senator Roberts offered amendments to prohibit the use of comparative effectiveness research and to eliminate the four rationers. He voted against the bill in both Committees and on the Senate floor.
He also led the fight in the U.S. Senate to block the nomination of Dr. Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services due to his support for the use of comparative effectiveness research and rationing.
Senator Roberts is a senior member of the Senate Committee on Finance and is the ranking member of its Subcommittee on Health Care. He is a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and is co-chairman of the Senate Rural Health Caucus.