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400,000 jobs immediately. Instead, CBO estimates 
that by 2025 Obamacare will reduce the number of 
hours worked by approximately 2 million full-time 
equivalent workers, mostly lower wage workers, com-
pared with what would have occurred in the absence 
of the law. Additionally, a 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. 
(4) The President has charged the Independent 
Payment Advisory Board, a panel of unelected bu-
reaucrats, with cutting Medicare by an additional 
$36.4 billion over the next 10 years. 
(5) Since the ACA was signed into law, the ad-
ministration has repeatedly failed to implement it as 
written. The President’s unilateral actions have re-
sulted in 43 changes, delays, and exemptions. The 
President has signed into law another 24 changes 
made by Congress. The Supreme Court struck down 
the forced expansion of Medicaid; ruled the indi-
vidual ‘‘mandate’’ could only be characterized as a 
tax to remain constitutional; and rejected the re-
quirement that closely held companies provide health 
insurance to their employees even if it violates the 
companies’ religious beliefs. More than 5 years after 
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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 of the underlying law; health care in the 
United States cannot be run from a centralized bu-
reaucracy. 
(6) The President’s health care law is 
unaffordable, intrusive, overreaching, destructive, 
and unworkable. Its complex structure of subsidies, 
mandates, and penalties perversely impact individ-
uals, married couples, and families. Those who pre-
viously had insurance along with those who did not 
have been funneled into a new system that is pro-
viding less access to doctors and treatments. Millions 
of Americans have been added to a broken Medicaid 
system that is incapable of providing the care prom-
ised. Cuts made to Medicare to fund a new entitle-
ment are undermining the health security of seniors. 
Taxes and mandates are distorting the insurance 
market and harming the broader economy, resulting 
in fewer jobs and less opportunity. By design, the 
President’s law puts Washington at the center of 
our health care system, at the expense of patients, 
families, physicians, and businesses. The ACA 
should be fully repealed, allowing for real patient- 
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centered health care reform that puts patients first, 
not Washington, DC. 
(b) POLICY ON PROMOTING REAL HEALTH CARE RE-
FORM.—It is the policy of this concurrent resolution that 
the President’s health care law should be fully repealed 
and real health care reform should be enacted to enhance 
affordability, accessibility, quality, innovation, choices, 
and responsiveness in coverage for all Americans. Real 
health care reform should put patients, families, and doc-
tors in charge, not Washington, DC, and encourage in-
creased competition and transparency. Under the Presi-
dent’s health care law, Government controls Americans’ 
health care choices. Patient-centered reform should be en-
acted in accordance with the following principles: 
(1) AFFORDABILITY.—Real reform should en-
sure that all Americans, no matter their age, in-
come, or health status, can afford health care cov-
erage. Currently, those who receive insurance 
through an employer receive assistance through the 
tax code, while those purchasing insurance on their 
own do not receive the same benefit. Individuals 
should not be priced out of the health insurance 
market due to pre-existing conditions. Policies 
should provide protections for patients with pre-ex-
isting conditions to guarantee affordable coverage, 
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reward those who maintain health coverage, create 
more equity between benefits offered through em-
ployers to individuals and families purchasing cov-
erage on their own, and give States, who are better 
equipped to respond to the needs of their commu-
nities, more control over insurance regulation. Indi-
viduals should also be allowed to voluntarily join to-
gether to pool risk through mechanisms such as In-
dividual Health Pools and Small Employer Member-
ship Associations to gain the purchasing power of 
thousands. 
(2) ACCESSABILITY.—Instead of Washington 
dictating the ways Americans cannot use their 
health insurance, reforms should make health cov-
erage 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 
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policies in one State should be permitted to offer 
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. 
(3) QUALITY.—Incentives for providers to de-
liver high-quality, responsive, and coordinated care 
will promote better patient outcomes and drive down 
health care costs. Additionally, reforms that restore 
the patient-physician relationship by reducing ad-
ministrative burdens will promote quality coverage 
for all Americans and allow physicians to do what 
they do best—care for patients. Reforms should also 
empower the patient by creating a marketplace for 
health care, allowing providers to compete on cost 
and quality for the patients’ choice. 
(4) 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. Patient-centered health 
care should enhance, not diminish coverage options 
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for individuals. Additionally, patients are often un-
able to compare costs for health care goods and 
services due to a lack of price transparency. The in-
ability of consumers to compare costs distorts the 
health marketplace at the expense of patients by de-
nying them the opportunity to make informed care 
decisions, further reducing competition and only 
serving select special interests. 
(5) INNOVATION.—Instead of stifling health 
care innovation, a reformed health care system 
should encourage research, development, and innova-
tion. New technologies provide patients and pro-
viders with instant connection and access to life sav-
ing diagnostic tools and treatments. Groundbreaking 
applications, software, and devices not only enhance 
the delivery of health care to be more effective and 
efficient, but also less costly. Federal regulations, 
however, too often slow and prevent widespread 
adoption of these medical advancements and hinder 
the transformation of America’s health delivery sys-
tem. 
(6) RESPONSIVENESS.—Reform should return 
authority to States where possible to make the sys-
tem more responsive to patients and their needs. In-
stead of tying States’ hands with Federal require-
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ments for Medicaid, the Government should return 
control over to the States. Not only does the current 
Medicaid program drive up Federal debt and threat-
en to bankrupt State budgets, but States are better 
positioned to provide quality and affordable care to 
those who are eligible for the program and to iden-
tify and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. Bene-
ficiary choices in the State Children’s Health Insur-
ance Program (SCHIP) and Medicaid should be im-
proved. States should offer private insurance, Health 
Savings Accounts, and other competitive insurance 
options to their Medicaid and SCHIP beneficiaries, 
but should not require enrollment. 
(7) REFORMS.—Reforms should prevent lawsuit 
abuse and curb the practice of defensive medicine, 
which significantly increase health care costs. The 
burden of proof in medical malpractice cases should 
be based on compliance with best practice guidelines, 
and States should be free to implement those poli-
cies to best suit their needs. 
SEC. 610. POLICY STATEMENT ON MEDICARE. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds the following: 
(1) More than 50 million Americans depend on 
Medicare for their health security. 
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(2) The Medicare Trustees Report has repeat-
edly recommended that Congress address Medicare’s 
long-term financial challenges. Each year without re-
form, the financial condition of Medicare becomes 
more precarious and the threat to those in or near 
retirement more pronounced. According to the Medi-
care Trustees Report— 
(A) the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund 
will be exhausted in 2030 and unable to pay the 
full scheduled benefits; 
(B) Medicare enrollment is expected to in-
crease more than 50 percent in the next two 
decades, as 10,000 baby boomers reach retire-
ment age each day; 
(C) due to extended life spans, enrollees 
remain in Medicare three times longer than at 
the outset of the program five decades ago; 
(D) notwithstanding the program’s Trust 
Fund arrangement, current workers’ payroll tax 
contributions pay for current Medicare bene-
ficiaries; 
(E) the number of workers supporting 
each beneficiary continues to fall; in 1965, the 
ratio was 4.5 workers per beneficiary, and by 
2030, when the baby boom generation will have 
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fully aged into the program, the ratio will be 
only 2.3 workers per beneficiary; 
(F) most Medicare beneficiaries receive 
about three dollars in Medicare benefits for 
every one dollar paid into the program; 
(G) Medicare is growing faster than the 
economy at a projected rate of 6 percent per 
year over the next 10 years; and 
(H) by 2026, Medicare spending will reach 
nearly $1.3 trillion, almost double the 2015 
spending level of $634 billion. 
(3) Failing to address Medicare’s collapsing fi-
nances will leave millions of American seniors with-
out adequate health security and younger genera-
tions burdened with having to pay for these 
unsustainable spending levels. 
(b) POLICY ON MEDICARE REFORM.—It is the policy 
of this concurrent resolution to save Medicare for those 
in or near retirement and strengthen the program for fu-
ture beneficiaries. 
(c) ASSUMPTIONS.—This concurrent resolution as-
sumes transition to an improved Medicare program that 
ensures— 
(1) Medicare is preserved for current and fu-
ture beneficiaries; 
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(2) future Medicare beneficiaries select, from 
competing guaranteed health coverage options, a 
plan that best suits their needs, with support from 
a defined contribution toward their premiums; 
(3) traditional fee-for-service Medicare remains 
as a plan option; 
(4) Medicare provides additional assistance for 
lower income beneficiaries and those with greater 
health risks; and 
(5) Medicare spending is put on a sustainable 
path and becomes solvent over the long term. 
SEC. 611. POLICY STATEMENT ON MEDICAL DISCOVERY, 
DEVELOPMENT, 
DELIVERY, 
AND 
INNOVA-
TION. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds the following: 
(1) For decades, the Nation’s commitment to 
the discovery, development, and delivery of new 
treatments and cures has made the United States 
the biomedical innovation capital of the world, bring-
ing life-saving drugs and devices to patients and well 
over a million high-paying jobs to local communities. 
(2) Americans were responsible for the first of 
many scientific discoveries, including creating the 
first vaccine for polio and numerous other scientific 
and medical breakthroughs that have improved and 
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prolonged human health and life for countless people 
in America and around the world. 
(3) The United States has led the way in early 
discovery because of visionary and determined 
innovators throughout the private and public sectors, 
including industry, academic medical centers, and 
Federally funded activities, such as the National In-
stitutes of Health (NIH). United States leadership 
is threatened, however, when other countries con-
tribute more to basic research from both public and 
private sources. 
(4) The Organisation for Economic Cooperation 
and Development predicts that China, for example, 
will outspend the United States in total research and 
development by the end of the decade. 
(5) Federal policies should foster investment in 
health care innovation. America should maintain its 
world leadership in medical science by encouraging 
competition in the delivery of cures and therapies to 
patients. 
(b) POLICY ON MEDICAL INNOVATION.—This concur-
rent resolution calls for— 
(1) Congress to support the important work of 
medical innovators throughout the country through 
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continued strong funding for the agencies that en-
gage in life saving research and development; and 
(2) Washington to unleash the power of innova-
tion by removing obstacles that impede the adoption 
of medical technologies - the bureaucracy and red- 
tape in Washington too often hold back medical in-
novation, increasing rather than decreasing costs, 
and prevent new lifesaving treatments from reaching 
patients. 
SEC. 612. POLICY STATEMENT ON PUBLIC HEALTH PRE-
PAREDNESS. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds the following: 
(1) The Nation’s ability to respond quickly and 
effectively to emergent health care threats must be 
a top priority. 
(2) Through international trade and travel, nat-
ural geographic barriers are removed, increasing the 
likelihood and speed of transmission for commu-
nicable diseases. 
(3) While the health care infrastructure enables 
rapid response to domestic public health threats, the 
most effective and efficient way to protect American 
lives from threats that emerge overseas is to halt the 
spread of disease before it reaches America’s bor-
ders. 
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(4) United States leadership in international 
public health preparedness and response is far 
reaching. Multiple agencies support activities to pre-
vent, detect, prepare for, and respond to emerging 
threats, as follows: 
(A) The Department of Health and 
Human Services coordinates with domestic 
agencies. For example— 
(i) the Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention serves as the first line of 
defense in global disease detection by pro-
viding domestic and international support 
through various activities, including coordi-
nating technical assistance with partners 
worldwide in disease prevention and detec-
tion and providing a multitude of re-
sources, including logistics, analytics, trac-
ing of data and disease contacts, labora-
tory testing, health education, and more; 
(ii) the National Institutes of Health 
conducts research activities for treatments 
and vaccines for infectious diseases; and 
(iii) the Biomedical Advanced Re-
search and Development Authority pro-
vides an integrated and systematic ap-
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proach in developing and acquiring the 
necessary medical resources in a public 
health emergency. 
(B) The United States Agency for Inter-
national Development assists other nations in 
building infrastructure and health systems for 
surveillance, identifying, and responding to in-
fectious diseases. 
(C) The Department of Defense maintains 
a surveillance and response system, as well as 
a network of laboratories, domestically and 
abroad, that support surveillance and research 
and development. 
(5) Emerging infectious diseases are unpredict-
able and pose a continuous threat. The United 
States must be vigilant and prepared to act at home 
and abroad. For example— 
(A) in 2003, the Severe Acute Respiratory 
Syndrome was first identified, and before the 
disease was contained, it spread to more than 
two dozen countries in North and South Amer-
ica, Europe, and Asia; 
(B) the H1N1 virus, a type of swine flu, 
caused a global flu pandemic in 2009, killing 
thousands; 
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(C) in 2012, an outbreak of measles re-
sulted in approximately 122,000 deaths; a dis-
ease that was declared to be eliminated from 
the United States in 2010; 
(D) Ebola was identified in West Africa in 
March of 2014; due to the highly infectious na-
ture of the disease, at the peak of the outbreak 
transmission rates reached as high as a thou-
sand new cases per week and resulted in ap-
proximately 28,000 cases and over 11,000 
deaths; and 
(E) on February 1, 2016, the World 
Health Organization declared a ‘‘Public Health 
Emergency of International Concern’’ due to 
potential health risks posed by the Zika virus. 
(b) POLICY ON PUBLIC HEALTH PREPAREDNESS.— 
It is the policy of this concurrent resolution that the 
House should, within available budgetary resources, pro-
vide continued support for research, prevention, and public 
health preparedness programs to ensure the Nation’s abil-
ity to respond efficiently and effectively to potential public 
health threats. 
SEC. 613. POLICY STATEMENT ON ADDRESSING THE OPIOID 
ABUSE EPIDEMIC. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The House finds the following: 
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