United States Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) asked health care organizations for recommendations to improve the American Health Care Act (AHCA) as passed by the US House of Representatives and now under consideration in the US Senate. Read the AMA’s comments.
In the response to Sen. Hatch, the AMA primarily focuses on premium affordability, insurance market stabilization and the Medicaid safety net—topics that are generally consistent with the scope of a budget reconciliation bill. Other policy improvements that might be made to current law—such as medical liability reform or eliminating the Independent Payment Advisory Board and restrictions on physician hospital ownership–do not fit within the framework of the legislative vehicle that the Senate currently is considering.