NAM Outlines Healthcare Priorities

In a message to members of the Congressional Healthcare Task Force, NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons urged Congress to pursue several healthcare priorities for manufacturers.

The big picture: Timmons laid out three core principles that guide NAM healthcare advocacy and engagement.

• First, the NAM believes that free enterprise, competitiveness, individual liberty and equal opportunity are the values that can successfully push forward the process of simplifying healthcare and achieving lower costs.
• Second, the NAM believes that the medical credo “first, do no harm” should guide healthcare policy efforts.
• Third, the NAM believes that the healthcare policy and business environment must allow and encourage unparalleled innovation, investment and manufacturing right here in the U.S.

In accordance with these principles, the NAM is pushing for several specific policy advances.

Transparency: “Manufacturers appreciate ongoing efforts to improve transparency in healthcare,” Timmons wrote. “Our industry has experienced the impacts of cost variation related to a range of healthcare services. These impacts can make health coverage more frustrating and expensive, for both consumers and employers who sponsor coverage.”

Connectivity: “The technology is available, and businesses have the capability to deliver and realize the potential of a fully connected healthcare system,” Timmons wrote. “Privacy laws and regulations need updating so that the deployment and adoption of new innovations to improve connectivity in our healthcare system can flourish.”

HSAs: The NAM believes Health Savings Accounts allow employees to have more control over their healthcare spending. To ensure HSAs can increase consumer flexibility and benefit American employees, the NAM supports efforts to increase limits and modernize rules governing HSAs.

Value-based arrangements: “Manufacturers are encouraged by the potential for healthcare innovation through outcomes-based healthcare arrangements,” Timmons wrote. “These arrangements would align incentives across a range of parties—healthcare providers, employers, patients, insurers and pharmaceutical and life sciences manufacturers—so that delivery of care, payment arrangements and clinical outcomes are achieved in an efficient manner.”

Association health plans: The NAM supports efforts to reform, advance and strengthen Association Health Plans. AHPs are beneficial especially to small businesses that struggle to offer affordable healthcare coverage to their employees. The NAM believes that additional legislation is needed to protect the longevity and sustainability of AHPs as a healthcare option.

Innovation: The NAM believes strong intellectual property protection is essential to creating a more competitive healthcare market, bringing down prices and fostering innovation by encouraging research and development.

The last word: “Despite the many challenges and strains facing the healthcare system, we are a nation that prides itself on first-class, best-in-the-world medical care,” Timmons wrote. “Our institutions, public and private, continue to lead the world on patient care, lifesaving treatments and medical research. We must uphold those successes while seeking to control or lower the cost of healthcare through market-oriented approaches. Employers are leading a great deal of innovation in healthcare delivery, and those positive developments must be allowed to flourish.”