Cape News

U.S. Rep. Jason Smith’s (R-MO-8) bill to prohibit federal health care programs from “using prices that are based on quality-adjusted life years” (QALYs) passed the House and now awaits action in the U.S. Senate.

“Bureaucrats in Washington and across the country are trying to put a price tag on life,” said Smith in a statement following House passage of the bill. “The Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act, reaffirms that every life has value and stops individual Americans from being reduced to mere dollars and cents on a spreadsheet.”

“An individual has worth, regardless of someone’s age or whether they have a disability or other chronic ailment,” said Smith. 

The bill, H.R. 485, would prohibit “all federal health care programs, including the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and federally funded state health care programs (e.g., Medicaid) from using prices that are based on quality-adjusted life years (i.e., measures that discount the value of a life based on disability, age, or terminal illness) to determine relevant thresholds for coverage, reimbursements, or incentive programs,” according to the bill summary. 

Originally sponsored by U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-WA), HR. 485 passed the House on a vote of 211 - 208 and has been referred to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance.

Tony Coelho, chairman of the Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) and a person with epilepsy, supported House passage of H.R. 485, saying in a statement that “the resulting barriers to care that come from assumptions that people with disabilities have a low quality of life and are not worthy of treatment are well documented.”  

“It is what drives me and so many in the disability community to advocate against the use of measures like quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) to determine how health care will be reimbursed and covered,” he said.

House passage of this bill comes as the Oregon legislature has passed a similar bill to ban the state’s Medicaid-funded Oregon Health Plan from using QALY’s when determining health care coverage for program participants. That bill awaits signature by Gov. Tina Kotek (D-Ore.).

Proponents of the legislation “said the bill would help eliminate outdated practices that discriminate against elderly and disabled people,” reported The Lund Report.  

Smith, 43, was first elected to represent Missouri's Eighth Congressional District in the 2013 Special Selection to fill the seat of retiring U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R). Smith won that election with 67 percent of the vote over Democrat Steve Hodges, who received 27 percent, and six additional third-party and write-in candidates.

A St. Louis native, Smith graduated from Salem High School and attended the University of Missouri and Oklahoma City University law school. He previously represented Missouri's 150th District in the state House of Representatives.

Missouri's Eighth Congressional District includes 30 counties in southeastern and souther Missouri, including the cities of Cape Girardeau, Farmington, Poplar Bluff, Rolla, and West Plains.