Our Personal Option Health Care Vision For Businesses

Americans aren’t looking for a government takeover of their health care. They don’t want a “one-size-fits-all” solution designed by politicians. Health care is too personal for that.

Instead, people want the ability to choose the affordable health care arrangements that are right for them. A Personal Option offers a robust menu of policy reforms that will give Americans more choice and control over their own health care, saving them money.

10 actions businesses can take now in favor of personalized health care

Across the nation, principled state and federal lawmakers are working to pass components of a “personal option” approach to health reform. These include proven reforms such as expanding access to tax-free health savings accounts, repealing certificate-of-need laws, increasing telehealth access, creating affordable insurance options, and promoting price transparency. These reforms, and their sponsors, deserve our support.

The way to beat a bad idea — a Public Option — is with a better one. A Personal Option is the smarter alternative to government-controlled health care that can enable lawmakers to go on offense and make meaningful, lasting change.

1. Give patients more control of their health care dollars

Let every American open a tax-free health savings account, a powerful tool that saves you money by enabling you to pay and save for health care, tax-free

  • Enact the Personalized Care Act (S.153, H.R.725) by Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Chip Roy

Make tax-free health savings accounts even better by increasing how much you can save in your HSA and what you can spend the money on

  • Enact the Health Savings Act (S.380, H.R.6271) by Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Jake LaTurner

Let every employee use tax-free money from their employer to buy personally tailored, portable health insurance that stays with them from job to job

  • Enact the Increasing Health Coverage through HRAs Act (H.R.4123) by Representative Dan Bishop
2. Give patients direct access to doctors

Protect patients’ freedom to use direct primary care, a new model that lets you pay a flat monthly subscription for access to your most trusted doctors and to deep drug discounts

  • Enact the Primary Care Enhancement Act (S.128) by Senator Bill Cassidy
3. Expand telehealth access

Unleash a digital health revolution by allowing patients and doctors to share health care information remotely in real time

  • Enact the bipartisan CONNECT for Health Act (H.R.2903) by Representative Mike Thompson
  • Enact the Telehealth Modernization Act (S.368, H.R.1332) by Senator Tim Scott and Representative Buddy Carter

Ensure rural Americans can take advantage of telehealth

  • Enact the Protecting Rural Telehealth Access Act (S.1988, H.R.5425) by Senator Joe Manchin and Representative Tom O’Halleran
4. Free up health facilities to expand and compete

Lift the federal moratorium on physician-owned hospitals

  • Enact the Patient Access to Higher Quality Health Care Act (H.R.1330) by Representative Michael Burgess.

Repeal local certificate-of-need laws, which restrict competition and drive up costs for patients

5. Let nurses deliver the care they’re trained for

Let nurses, pharmacists, and physician assistants deliver care for which they’re trained

  • Relax burdensome local rules that require a physician’s supervision

Let nurses and doctors practice across state lines

  • Encourage states to recognize the licenses of professionals from other states
  • Let doctors and nurses bill for care they deliver outside their home state

Allow foreign-trained physicians to treat Americans during an emergency

  • Enact the Allowing All to Serve Act (S.3726, 2020) by Senator Ted Cruz

Make commonsense COVID-19 policy waivers permanent

  • Enact the Coronavirus Regulatory Repeal Act (S.969, H.R.2251) by Senator Rand Paul and Representative Chip Roy
6. Reduce prescription drugs costs

Streamline FDA drug approvals to give patients and doctors more options

  • Enact the RESULTs Act (S.154, H.R.724) by Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Chip Roy

Remove barriers to robust pharmaceutical competition and price transparency

  • Enact theLower Costs More Cures Act (H.R.19) by Senator Mike Crapo and Representative Cathy McMorris-Rodgers
  • Enact the Prescription Drug Price Reduction Act (S.4199, 2020) by Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Wyden
7. Expand affordable insurance options

Protect access to short term health insurance plans, which can be significantly more affordable than traditional plans

  • Enact the Health Coverage Choice Act (H.R.31) by Representative Andy Biggs

Legalize association health plans, which let small businesses band together to buy affordable coverage for their employees

  • Enact the Association Health Plans Act (S.896) by Senator John Kennedy

Regulate insurance more sensibly so it costs less

  • Eliminate needless mandates so consumers can buy only what they need
  • Eliminate price controls so young people can afford insurance, which reduces costs for everyone
  • Enact the reforms contained in “Health Care Choices 2020,” a comprehensive plan to reduce health care costs that has been endorsed by more than 70 national organizations and experts
8. Promote price transparency

Incentivize doctors and hospitals to publish, and compete on, their cash-pay prices

  • Arm patients to shop for value using such powerful tools as tax-free health savings accounts and direct primary care
9. Strengthen government safety nets to protect the most vulnerable

Give low-income families more choice and control

  • Provide tax-free government contributions to low-income families’ health savings accounts

Give seniors more choice and control

  • Enact the Retirement Freedom Act (S.275, H.R.1166) by Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Gary Palmer
  • Assign new Medicare enrollees to a high-quality, competitive Medicare Advantage plan, while letting them choose a different plan or switch to Original Medicare if they wish

Restore Medicaid to its original mission as a safety net for the truly vulnerable

  • Eliminate federal Medicaid subsidies for adults who are not disabled or poor
  • Give states flexibility so they can target resources to those who need it
  • Restructure Medicaid to control costs, eliminate waste and protect taxpayers
10. Help people, not insurance companies

Reform government subsidies so money goes directly to individuals, rather than to third parties like insurers and providers

Learn how you can take action.