| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 30, 2024 | Contact: Sara van Geertruyden [email protected] |
Today, PIPC Chairman Tony Coelho issued the following statement of support for H.R. 485, The Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act.
As a person with epilepsy, I am excited to see Congress working to advance H.R. 485, the Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act. Due to my seizures, I have experienced the stigma that so many people with disabilities experience routinely. The resulting barriers to care that come from assumptions that people with disabilities have a low quality of life and are not worthy of treatment are well documented. It is what drives me and so many in the disability community to advocate against the use of measures like quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) to determine how health care will be reimbursed and covered.
This legislation would extend to programs like Medicaid the existing protections in the Medicare program against use of QALYs that have been supported by Congressional Democrats in landmark health care bills such as the Affordable Care Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. The bill’s provisions are also consistent with the 2020 DNC Platform statement opposing the use of QALYs, as well as recommendations of the National Council on Disability. Therefore, I urge Democrats and Republicans to come together in an act of bipartisanship to pass the bill and to avoid any amendments that would weaken the ACA and IRA protections against the use of QALYs and similar measures to make coverage and reimbursement decisions.
This legislation would extend to programs like Medicaid the existing protections in the Medicare program against use of QALYs that have been supported by Congressional Democrats in landmark health care bills such as the Affordable Care Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. The bill’s provisions are also consistent with the 2020 DNC Platform statement opposing the use of QALYs, as well as recommendations of the National Council on Disability. Therefore, I urge Democrats and Republicans to come together in an act of bipartisanship to pass the bill and to avoid any amendments that would weaken the ACA and IRA protections against the use of QALYs and similar measures to make coverage and reimbursement decisions.
