Richard Burr on Healthcare - The Patients' Choice Act

1. Preventing Disease and Promoting Healthier Lifestyles
2. Creating Affordable and Accessible Health Insurance Options
3. Providing a Tax Cut to Every American by Making the Tax System More Equitable
4. Increasing Value in Medicaid and Medicare and Protecting Beneficiary Choice
5. Ensuring Compensation for Injured Patients

• Encourage increased coordination of federal prevention efforts and measure the results of those programs;
• Create a personalized prevention plan for every American that would include strategies tailored to the individual to improve diet and exercise habits;
• Require CDC to undertake a national campaign highlighting science-based health promotion strategies;
• Equip food stamp recipients with easily understandable information about nutritious food options and restrict the use of food stamps for less healthy choices;
• Provide $50 million annually for increased vaccine availability and bonus grants to states that achieve 90 percent or greater coverage of CDC-recommended vaccines; and,
• Reward states that effectively reduce rates of chronic disease like heart disease and diabetes.

• The creation of State Health Insurance Exchanges would give Americans a one-stop marketplace to compare different health insurance policies and select the one that meets their unique needs;
• A standard benefit requirement that is the same requirement that ensures Members of Congress have a wide range of choices in the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program;
• Consumer protections that would require all participating Exchange insurers offer coverage to any individual regardless of age or health;
• A non-profit, independent board would risk adjust among the insurance companies to penalize companies that cherry pick health patients and reward insurers that cover patients with pre-existing conditions;
• Auto-enrollment at the DMV, emergency rooms, etc., for those individuals that do not select a plan at the beginning of the year; and,
• The ability for states to band together in regional pooling arrangements.

• Providing an advanceable and refundable tax credit of $2,290 per individual or $5,710 per family; and,
• Improving how Health Savings Accounts operate by permitting HSAs to pay health insurance premiums without a tax penalty, allow High Deductible Health Plans to cover preventive services, and increase the amount of money a HSA owner may annually contribute to their account.

• Integrating low-income families with dependent children into higher quality private plans through direct assistance that will be coupled with a tax credit;
• Realigning responsibility between federal and state governments in order to better coordinate benefits by requiring the Medicare program to assume Medicaid responsibility of premiums, cost-sharing, and deductibles for low-income seniors and the states, in exchange, would accept a defined federal allotment for long-term care and supportive services;
• Rebalancing long-term care services to ensure choice between institutionalized and home-based care;
• Preserving Medicaid for individuals with disabilities;
• Increasing choices to Medicare beneficiaries by reforming Medicare Advantage;
• Allowing for the creation of Medicare Accountable Care Organizations that would improve payment to physicians, hospitals, pharmacists, and nurses for demonstrable improvements in quality and patient satisfaction while reducing costs; and,
• Requiring wealthy Medicare beneficiaries to contribute more for care provided under Medicare Part B.

• Encouraging states to adopt a number of legal alternatives entirely run by the state, that would include the establishment of expert medical panels to resolve disputes, creation of health courts, or a combination of both.