Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) released a 46-page report, “The Case for Healthcare Freedom,” earlier this year. The paper is a comprehensive review of the multiple challenges in health care today, which have driven up costs and reduced access to an unprecedented level. Roy discussed the report with Health Care News Managing Editor AnneMarie Schieber, explaining why he believes President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have a golden opportunity to deliver “transformational reform.”
Health Care News: “The Case for Healthcare Freedom” is a report on how health care should be, and it covers multiple subjects such as food, drugs, and crony capitalism. How does that translate to legislative action?
Roy: The purpose of the report was to lay out the philosophical case for what I call health care freedom, the ability of an American to go to a doctor of their choice, to get care, and have the financial backstop to do that. We have essentially broken that whole system.
Health Care News: It’s been said the kind of health care system we have today is socialized medicine run by private health insurance companies. Is that accurate?
Roy: Yes. We pat ourselves [on the back] on how we “stopped single payer care,” and what we have is something that may even be worse, which is a combination of government so-called care and half of it is highly regulated insurance-run health management, but nowhere is care involved in any of it.
Health Care News: Americans seem to believe that the government has a magic formula to fix health care. There is growing distrust in the government, however, so why does that notion persist for health care, even among conservative-leaning politicians?
Roy: It’s the easiest [thing to] answer. I’m a free-market guy. The easiest path is to say, “I’m going to solve your problem.” Then you get the program in place. Everyone becomes dependent on the program. Then you can’t fix the program because you’re criticized for taking away benefits, so what is left is to add more money.
Well, where is the money coming from? You’ll hear, “We’ll grow the economy.” Republicans have been campaigning for decades on limited government, the Constitution, and a balanced budget. Name for me how many Republicans stood up in defense of those things.
I get all kinds of bills thrown in front of me that say, “You must fund cancer research,” or “You must fund ALS research,” or “Burn pits for veterans”—who are hurt because government warmongers put us in war for 20 years and now we have to have an expanded burn pit program that will probably fold in people who shouldn’t necessarily be in the program, and now it’s spiraling out of control. Those who vote against it are deemed “anti-veteran,” and now here we are.
Health Care News: In your report, you propose increasing contribution limits for health savings accounts (HSAs) to $12,000 for individuals and $25,000 for families. How did you arrive at those figures? How can that improve the market, and how soon?
Roy: I believe we need an actual free market in health care, or as close as we can get, and the way to do that is to put money in people’s pockets to procure the products we’re currently getting through our corporate-crony, government-regulated system. The average family of four is spending either out-of-pocket or [with an] employer contribution roughly $24,000 a year for “insurance.” For that, they get a handful of doctors in a network with high deductibles, co-pays, and constraints on when and how you can use it.
Our theory is we should equalize the tax treatment so an employer can put that into an HSA and get the same tax break they currently do and give that same benefit to those who are self-employed, and free up how you can use those dollars. You should be able to buy health insurance, true health insurance, a deregulated policy, and go to direct primary care.
There are lots of parts, like breaking some of the monopolies, but on HSAs, you’re not going to get competition unless you put cash into people’s pockets and let them go out and shop.
There is a reason why there are 50 oil change places not far from my house. But if I’m looking for health care, where do I shop?
Health Care News: Do price transparency mandates help solve these problems?
Roy: I don’t want to see mandatory transparency, because right now, prices are fake. What are hospitals going to post? The Medicare prices? The private sector prices?
Health Care News: Some analysts argue that the employer tax exemption for employee health insurance is the root of all evil in the system by pushing people into highly regulated health plans and incentivizing wasteful spending. Should we put this money back in American workers’ hands? If so, what would it take for Congress to move in that direction?
Roy: I think it is a huge part of the evil. What will get movement on it? It would take go-out-on-a-limb leadership from a popular president, speaker of the House, and majority leader to lean into it and say we’re going to transform health care because we’re supposed to be a free country. It requires a leader who could stand up to corporations and insurance companies.
To break it loose, we need to get people comfortable with transformative change. We must get out of the trap of talking about Obamacare, talking about Medicaid, talking about coverage, because when you’re talking about that, you’re not talking about care.
AnneMarie Schieber is a research fellow at The Heartland Institute and managing editor of Health Care News, Heartland’s monthly newspaper for health care reform.
