Seven House Republicans have unveiled their own version of a federal health care law.
The bill drafted by members of the Republican Study Committee, including Fourth District Representative Todd Rokita, repeals President Obama‘s health care law, and replaces it with a 75-hundred-dollar income tax deduction if you buy your own insurance. It proposes health savings accounts similar to those in Indiana‘s health insurance plan, and would make state insurance data and Medicare claims data public, to allow patients to comparison-shop on pricing.
Rokita argues the G-O-P version would force medical prices down through competition, while preserving existing doctor-patient relationships.
Republicans offered many of the provisions during the original health care debate three years ago. The bill incorporates the existing law‘s high-risk pools to ensure people with preexisting conditions can get coverage.
Rokita acknowledges the bill will go nowhere in the Senate without Democratic support. He says that would probably first require the existing law to prove unworkable as more provisions take effect — something Rokita maintains is inevitable.
