A group of lawmakers have misgivings about a new rule of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that governs how health care insurance plans on the Obamacare exchange are developed and sold.
To be sure those concerns were heard, House Energy and Commerce Chair Fred Upton (R-MI) and House Ways and Means Committee Chair Kevin Brady (R-TX) -- backed by 32 Republican committee members -- composed a letter that was forwarded to CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt.
The group contended that the rule would be detrimental to patients because it increases the role the government has in health care, and also that it decreases choices for exchange consumers as well as stemming innovation in health care.
“We are concerned CMS’s policies will continue a pattern of allowing Washington bureaucrats to pick winners and losers by propping up plans that meet arbitrary requirements, instead of preserving choice and encouraging consumers to select plans that will best meet their unique needs,” they said in the letter.
