Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 485, the Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act, which would ban the use of the quality-adjusted life years metric in our Federal health programs.

I thank Chair Rodgers for her leadership on this issue and her staunch advocacy for American patients, no matter their background. The use of QALYs when determining coverage and payment policies in healthcare at its core devalues the lives of patients with disabilities and chronic conditions.

As co-chair of the Rare Disease Caucus, I am concerned about how the use of QALY metric impacts payment decisions for chronic rare disorder patients, potentially making it more difficult for them to get access to lifesaving treatments. We can't have that.

I am also concerned about how this metric could be used by bureaucrats to make decisions that discriminate against our Nation's disabled veterans, our heroes. These lives have value and should not be discriminated against when determining the cost-effectiveness of treatments, plain and simple.

Pricing measurements and discriminatory methodologies such as QALYs have been condemned by the National Council on Disability. Even the Affordable Care Act contained a narrow ban of this metric, and I guess into Medicare, and I am disappointed that the Democrats have decided to turn their back on individuals with preexisting conditions like they have here today.

Let's ban this metric and support H.R. 485, which has been endorsed by the National Down Syndrome Society. Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, and more than 100 other disability and patient advocacy groups. That speaks volumes, as far as I am concerned. I thank the chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee for putting this forward, and let's pass it today.

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