Koch brothers' group outlines healthcare priorities

Freedom Partners, an Arlington, Va.-based conservative nonprofit partially funded by the Koch brothers, is joining the ranks of other interest groups like the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association to outline its healthcare priorities in the face of a potential ACA repeal.

In a memo dated Jan. 30, Freedom Partners outlined its "Targeted Approach" to healthcare. The group advocated for repealing the ACA and taking a step-by-step approach to replace it, which includes the following five policy changes.

1. Establish high-risk pools for individuals with pre-existing conditions. Freedom Partners suggested allowing states to transition their ACA exchanges into high-risk pools and re-establishing others that existed before the ACA.

2. Repeal federal regulations and allow states to decide. The group believes federal mandates under the ACA should be eliminated and states should be allowed to establish their own regulations regarding interstate exchanges, guaranteed issue of health insurance and continuous coverage provisions, among others.

3. Expand health savings accounts. Freedom Partners supports increasing the annual contribution cap on HSAs and eliminating restrictions on how the money can be used.

4. Freeze Medicaid expansion. The nonprofit believes Medicaid expansion should be ended and states should be granted the ability to design their own Medicaid programs through a block grant or per-capita cap program.

5. Improve competition in healthcare. Freedom Partners suggests costs can be driven down by increasing competition through a number of federal and state reforms. They advocate for increasing the cap on medical residencies, speeding the Food and Drug Administration approval process, expanding scope of practice laws, reforming Medical malpractice laws and reducing regulations on telemedicine, among others.

Read the full memo here.

 

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