House Rules Adds Health Discrimination Bill to Impeachment Resolution

The House Rules Committee decided Monday to send a health program anti-discrimination measure to the House floor with a resolution calling for the impeachment of U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The committee rule calls for House members to discuss H.R. 485, the Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act of 2023, for an hour.

The House is impeaching Mayorkas because some members believe he has done too little to keep people from entering the United States from Mexico without permission.

H.R. 485 was introduced by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Ore. It would forbid federal programs, including Medicaid and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, from basing coverage decisions on quality-adjusted life years estimates.

What it means:  Federal law already prohibits Medicare from considering QALY estimates. If H.R. 485 becomes law, it could affect clients who have federal employee benefits or who use Medicaid to pay for nursing home care.

QALY: A “quality-adjusted life year” is a measure for assessing the impact of health care actions and trends based on the assumption that a healthy year of life is more valuable than a year affected by a serious illness or disability.

H.R. 485:  H.R. 485 would forbid use of QALY estimates or a similar measure by a federal health program. It includes specific bans on QALY use by Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D prescription drug plans.

The mechanics: H.R. 485 is similar to H.R. 7364, a bill McMorris Rodgers introduced in the previous Congress.