{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://buchanan.house.gov/2022/9/buchanan-and-guthrie-we-will-commit-healthier-future", "Buchanan and Guthrie: We Will Commit to a Healthier Future", "2022-09-19", "2022", "2022-09", "Republican", "House", "FL", "Vern Buchanan", "B001260", "buchanan.house.gov", "buchanan", "https://buchanan.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Republican Healthy Future Task Force co-chairs, Congressman Vern Buchanan (FL-16) and Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), penned an op-ed for the September edition of The Ripon Forum providing an overview of the Task Force\u2019s proposed solutions ahead of the House GOP\u2019s Commitment to America rollout this Friday.\n\n\u201cDemocrats\u2019 plans for socialized medicine and government-run health care will ultimately lead to fewer cures, worse care and limited choices. Republicans are prepared to improve the American health care system by getting policies signed into law that will lead to more cures and choices, better care and lower out-of-pocket costs for patients,\u201d wrote the co-chairs in the op-ed.\n\nAfter spending more than a year engaging with patients, doctors and companies developing medical technologies and therapies, members of the Healthy Future Task Force released their solutions to modernize, personalize and improve health care to help Americans live healthier and longer lives. House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy established the 17-member Healthy Future Task Force as part of the \u201cCommitment to America\u201d legislative and oversight plan.\n\nBelow are links to an overview of solutions from each Healthy Future Task Force subcommittee:\n\nClick HERE to view the Modernization Subcommittee solutions.\n\nClick HERE to view the Treatment Subcommittee solutions.\n\nClick HERE to view the Security Subcommittee solutions.\n\nClick HERE to view the Doctor-Patient Relationship Subcommittee solutions.\n\nClick HERE to view the Affordability Subcommittee solutions.\n\nYou can read the full op-ed HERE or below.\n\nThe Ripon Forum\n\nWe Will Commit to a Healthier Future\n\nBy Congressmen Vern Buchanan and Brett Guthrie\n\nDemocrats\u2019 attempts to \u201cfix\u201d problems in health care with a top-down, Washington-knows-best approach leave too many Americans without access to adequate care. After more than a year and a half of Democrat control in Washington, we have seen Democrats push for one-size-fits all, government-run health care that gives more power over patients\u2019 health care to bureaucrats and enact laws that result in fewer medical cures for patients, higher launch prices for drugs, and subsidized health care for wealthy Americans.\n\nRepublicans\u2019 Healthy Future Task Force, which we co-chair, has a different vision that involves modernizing, personalizing, and improving the health care system to help Americans live healthier, longer lives. The Task Force has spent over a year engaging the American people and listening to their experiences with the health care system. Our members hosted roundtables and heard directly from doctors, patients, and companies working on cutting-edge technologies and therapies.\n\nWith this information, we developed solutions to improve the health of all Americans by expanding choices, lowering costs, and modernizing treatment options. This approach is in stark contrast to Democrats\u2019 big government health care failures.\n\nWhen looking at ways to improve treatment, the Task Force\u2019s proposals focus on promoting and supercharging the availability of lifesaving cures and therapies. To increase access, we are working on lowering costs of these new treatments and promoting American-made medicines to prevent patients from being held hostage by the global supply chain crisis.\n\nIncreasing choice, competition, and transparency is at the center of the Task Force\u2019s solutions to make health care more affordable. Patients deserve to know the price they will pay before they receive care, which is why the Task Force is focused on unlocking a new, revolutionary wave of health care price transparency. Further, the Task Force has developed solutions to give businesses and employees more flexibility, including through association health plans and Health Savings Accounts, to offer or purchase, respectively, the most affordable health insurance policy that best meets employees\u2019 needs.\n\nIn addition to expanding access to innovative health care technologies, we want to safeguard and maintain expanded telehealth access that patients, especially seniors, benefitted greatly from during the pandemic. Our solutions also aim to improve our nation\u2019s fiscal health by cracking down on taxpayer dollars wasted on improper payments in government health care programs.\n\nThe Task Force believes public health security is national security. America learned a costly lesson regarding significant shortcomings within our public health system during the COVID-19 pandemic. We developed solutions to tackle future health crises by channeling the power of the private sector; using effective, transparent, accurate, and timely communications from government leaders to the American people during future pandemics; and ensuring our supply chains are secured. The Task Force also wants to see thorough investigations into COVID-19\u2019s origins, policies that build upon the success of Operation Warp Speed, and accountability for the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\n\nWhile Democrats want to put bureaucrats in charge of patients\u2019 health care, Republicans know the doctor-patient relationship is foundational to quality care. The Task Force wants to get Washington out of the doctor\u2019s office and remove federal mandates to ensure patients remain the focus of visits. We also want to ensure patients have access to quality care by promoting programs that bolster our health care workforce and improve access to real-time care.\n\nDemocrats\u2019 plans for socialized medicine and government-run health care will ultimately lead to fewer cures, worse care, and limited choices. Republicans are prepared to improve the American health care system by getting policies signed into law that will lead to more cures and choices, better care, and lower out-of-pocket costs for patients.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T03:08:33Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://buchanan.house.gov/2022/9/buchanan-and-guthrie-we-will-commit-healthier-future"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9836601093411446, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}