Patients’ Choice Act — A Better Prescription

In late May, Senators Tom Coburn and Richard Burr, and Representatives Paul Ryan and Devin Nunes, all Republicans, offered a new prescription for health care reform that is a vast improvement over what we’ve seen previously from Washington. The “Patients’ Choice Act” (PCA), as its sponsors refer to the proposal, honestly confronts the unsustainable and unjust realities of our current medical system. Despite good intentions, many reform proposals increase the role of government, place additional burdens on business, and interfere with medical decision making between the patient and doctor. Yet, without substantial health care reform, the United States will suffer from a greater financial disaster than is anticipated in the current crisis, and will unconscionably burden our children and grandchildren with debt and inflation. The PCA represents a more promising approach.