103 
•HCON 27 RH 
(2) prevents a 20 percent across-the-board ben-
efit cut; 
(3) makes the Disability Insurance program 
work better; and 
(4) promotes opportunity for those trying to re-
turn to work. 
(d) POLICY ON SOCIAL SECURITY SOLVENCY.—Any 
legislation that Congress considers to improve the solvency 
of the Disability Insurance trust fund also must improve 
the long-term solvency of the combined Old Age and Sur-
vivors Disability Insurance (OASDI) trust fund. 
SEC. 807. POLICY STATEMENT ON REPEALING THE PRESI-
DENT’S HEALTH CARE LAW AND PROMOTING 
REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds the following: 
(1) The President’s health care law put Wash-
ington’s priorities first, and not patients’. The Af-
fordable Care Act (ACA) has failed to reduce health 
care premiums as promised; instead, the law man-
dated benefits and coverage levels, denying patients 
the opportunity to choose the type of coverage that 
best suits their health needs and driving up health 
coverage costs. A typical family’s health care pre-
miums were supposed to decline by $2,500 a year; 
instead, according to the 2014 Employer Health 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:58 Mar 20, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00103
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\HC27.RH
HC27
smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
104 
•HCON 27 RH 
Benefits Survey, health care premiums have in-
creased by 7 percent for individuals and families 
since 2012. 
(2) The President pledged ‘‘If you like your 
health care plan, you can keep your health care 
plan.’’ Instead, the nonpartisan Congressional Budg-
et Office now estimates 9 million Americans with 
employment-based health coverage will lose those 
plans due to the President’s health care law, further 
limiting patient choice. 
(3) Then-Speaker of the House, Pelosi, said 
that the President’s health care law would create 4 
million jobs over the life of the law and almost 
400,000 jobs immediately. Instead, the Congres-
sional Budget Office estimates that the reduction in 
hours worked due to Obamacare represents a decline 
of about 2.0 to 2.5 million full-time equivalent work-
ers, compared with what would have occurred in the 
absence of the law. The full impact on labor rep-
resents a reduction in employment by 1.5 percent to 
2.0 percent, while additional studies show less mod-
est results. A recent study by the Mercatus Center 
at 
George 
Mason 
University 
estimates 
that 
Obamacare will reduce employment by up to 3 per-
cent, or about 4 million full-time equivalent workers. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:58 Mar 20, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00104
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\HC27.RH
HC27
smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
105 
•HCON 27 RH 
(4) The President has charged the Independent 
Payment Advisory Board, a panel of unelected bu-
reaucrats, with cutting Medicare by an additional 
$20.9 billion over the next ten years, according to 
the President’s most recent budget. 
(5) Since ACA was signed into law, the admin-
istration has repeatedly failed to implement it as 
written. The President has unilaterally acted to 
make a total of 28 changes, delays, and exemptions. 
The President has signed into law another 17 
changes made by Congress. The Supreme Court 
struck down the forced expansion of Medicaid; ruled 
the individual ‘‘mandate’’ could only be character-
ized as a tax to remain constitutional; and rejected 
the requirement that closely held companies provide 
health insurance to their employees if doing so vio-
lates these companies’ religious beliefs. Even now, 
almost five years after enactment, the Supreme 
Court continues to evaluate the legality of how the 
President’s administration has implemented the law. 
All of these changes prove the folly underlying the 
entire program health care in the United States can-
not be run from a centralized bureaucracy. 
(6) The President’s health care law is 
unaffordable, intrusive, overreaching, destructive, 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:58 Mar 20, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00105
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\HC27.RH
HC27
smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
106 
•HCON 27 RH 
and unworkable. The law should be fully repealed, 
allowing for real, patient-centered health care re-
form: the development of real health care reforms 
that puts patients first, that make affordable, qual-
ity health care available to all Americans, and that 
build on the innovation and creativity of all the par-
ticipants in the health care sector. 
(b) POLICY ON PROMOTING REAL HEALTH CARE RE-
FORM.—It is the policy of this resolution that the Presi-
dent’s health care law should be fully repealed and real 
health care reform promoted in accordance with the fol-
lowing principles: 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Health care reform should 
enhance affordability, accessibility, quality, innova-
tion, choices and responsiveness in health care cov-
erage for all Americans, putting patients, families, 
and doctors in charge, not Washington, DC. These 
reforms should encourage increased competition and 
transparency. Under the President’s health care law, 
government controls Americans’ health care choices. 
Under true, patient-centered reform, Americans 
would. 
(2) AFFORDABILITY.—Real reform should be 
centered on ensuring that all Americans, no matter 
their age, income, or health status, have the ability 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:58 Mar 20, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00106
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\HC27.RH
HC27
smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
107 
•HCON 27 RH 
to afford health care coverage. The health care deliv-
ery structure should be improved, and individuals 
should not be priced out of the health insurance 
market due to pre-existing conditions, but national-
ized health care is not only unnecessary to accom-
plish this, it undermines the goal. Individuals should 
be allowed to join together voluntarily to pool risk 
through mechanisms such as Individual Membership 
Associations and Small Employer Membership Asso-
ciations. 
(3) ACCESSABILITY.—Instead of Washington 
outlining for Americans the ways they cannot use 
their health insurance, reforms should make health 
coverage more portable. Individuals should be able to 
own their insurance and have it follow them in and 
out of jobs throughout their career. Small business 
owners should be permitted to band together across 
State lines through their membership in bona fide 
trade or professional associations to purchase health 
coverage for their families and employees at a low 
cost. This will increase small businesses’ bargaining 
power, volume discounts, and administrative effi-
ciencies while giving them freedom from State-man-
dated benefit packages. Also, insurers licensed to sell 
policies in one State should be permitted to offer 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:58 Mar 20, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00107
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\HC27.RH
HC27
smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
108 
•HCON 27 RH 
them to residents in any other State, and consumers 
should be permitted to shop for health insurance 
across State lines, as they are with other insurance 
products online, by mail, by phone, or in consulta-
tion with an insurance agent. 
(4) QUALITY.—Incentives for providers to de-
liver high-quality, responsive, and coordinated care 
will promote patient outcomes and drive down health 
care costs. likewise, reforms that work to restore the 
patient-physician relationship by reducing adminis-
trative burdens and allowing physicians to do what 
they do best: care for patients 
(5) CHOICES.—Individuals and families should 
be free to secure the health care coverage that best 
meets their needs, rather than instituting one-size- 
fits-all directives from Federal bureaucracies such as 
the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of 
Health and Human Services, and the Independent 
Payment Advisory Board. 
(6) INNOVATION.—Instead of stifling innovation 
in health care technologies, treatments, medications, 
and therapies with Federal mandates, taxes, and 
price controls, a reformed health care system should 
encourage research, development and innovation. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:58 Mar 20, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00108
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\HC27.RH
HC27
smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
109 
•HCON 27 RH 
(7) RESPONSIVENESS.—Reform should return 
authority to States wherever possible to make the 
system more responsive to patients and their needs. 
Instead of tying States’ hands with Federal require-
ments for their Medicaid programs, the Federal 
Government should return control of this program to 
the States. Not only does the current Medicaid pro-
gram drive up Federal debt and threaten to bank-
rupt State budgets, but States are better positioned 
to provide quality, affordable care to those who are 
eligible for the program and to track down and weed 
out waste, fraud and abuse. Beneficiary choices in 
the State Children’s Health Insurance Program 
(SCHIP) and Medicaid should be improved. States 
should make available the purchase of private insur-
ance as an option to their Medicaid and SCHIP pop-
ulations (though they should not require enroll-
ment). 
(8) REFORMS.—Reforms should be made to 
prevent lawsuit abuse and curb the practice of de-
fensive medicine, which are significant drivers in-
creasing health care costs. The burden of proof in 
medical malpractice cases should be based on com-
pliance with best practice guidelines, and States 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:58 Mar 20, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00109
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\HC27.RH
HC27
smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
110 
•HCON 27 RH 
should be free to implement those policies to best 
suit their needs. 
SEC. 808. POLICY STATEMENT ON MEDICARE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds the following: 
(1) More than 50 million Americans depend on 
Medicare for their health security. 
(2) The Medicare Trustees Report has repeat-
edly recommended that Medicare’s long-term finan-
cial challenges be addressed soon. Each year without 
reform, the financial condition of Medicare becomes 
more precarious and the threat to those in or near 
retirement becomes more pronounced. According to 
the Medicare Trustees Report— 
(A) the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund 
will be exhausted in 2030 and unable to pay 
scheduled benefits; 
(B) Medicare enrollment is expected to in-
crease by over 50 percent in the next two dec-
ades, as 10,000 baby boomers reach retirement 
age each day; 
(C) enrollees remain in Medicare three 
times longer than at the outset of the program; 
(D) current workers’ payroll contributions 
pay for current beneficiaries; 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:58 Mar 20, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00110
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\HC27.RH
HC27
smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
111 
•HCON 27 RH 
(E) in 2013, the ratio was 3.2 workers per 
beneficiary, but this falls to 2.3 in 2030 and 
continues to decrease over time; 
(F) most Medicare beneficiaries receive 
about three dollars in Medicare benefits for 
every one dollar paid into the program; and 
(G) Medicare spending is growing faster 
than the economy and Medicare outlays are 
currently rising at a rate of 6.5 percent per 
year over the next 10 years. According to the 
Congressional Budget Office’s 2014 Long-Term 
Budget Outlook, spending on Medicare is pro-
jected to reach 5 percent of gross domestic 
product (GDP) by 2043 and 9.3 percent of 
GDP by 2089. 
(3) Failing to address this problem will leave 
millions of American seniors without adequate health 
security and younger generations burdened with 
enormous debt to pay for spending levels that cannot 
be sustained. 
(b) POLICY ON MEDICARE REFORM.—It is the policy 
of this resolution to preserve the program for those in or 
near retirement and strengthen Medicare for future bene-
ficiaries. 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:58 Mar 20, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00111
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\HC27.RH
HC27
smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS
112 
•HCON 27 RH 
(c) ASSUMPTIONS.—This resolution assumes reform 
of the Medicare program such that— 
(1) current Medicare benefits are preserved for 
those in or near retirement; 
(2) permanent reform of the sustainable growth 
rate is responsibly accounted for to ensure physi-
cians continue to participate in the Medicare pro-
gram and provide quality health care for bene-
ficiaries; 
(3) when future generations reach eligibility, 
Medicare is reformed to provide a premium support 
payment and a selection of guaranteed health cov-
erage options from which recipients can choose a 
plan that best suits their needs; 
(4) Medicare will maintain traditional fee-for- 
service as a plan option; 
(5) Medicare will provide additional assistance 
for lower income beneficiaries and those with greater 
health risks; and 
(6) Medicare spending is put on a sustainable 
path and the Medicare program becomes solvent 
over the long-term. 
SEC. 809. POLICY STATEMENT ON MEDICAL DISCOVERY, 
DEVELOPMENT, DELIVERY AND INNOVATION. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds the following: 
VerDate Sep 11 2014 
23:58 Mar 20, 2015
Jkt 049200
PO 00000
Frm 00112
Fmt 6652
Sfmt 6201
E:\BILLS\HC27.RH
HC27
smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with BILLS