WASHINGTON, DC—On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 485, the Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act, which would ban federal health programs from using discriminatory measures known as Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs). U.S. Representative John Rose (TN-06) expressed support for the bill immediately following its passage.
The full remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:
Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the “Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act of 2023”. This important legislation aims to prevent discrimination against Americans with disabilities and expand access to lifesaving cures.
It would end the use of quality adjusted life years – also known as QALYs – in all federal programs. QALY’s are factors used to rank whether a patient is worth the expense of a particular treatment. This rubric intentionally devalues treatment for those who have disabilities and those with chronic illness.
This practice has been widely investigated by various nonpartisan groups. And yet, QALY’s are only prohibited to Medicare in a limited fashion.
We know of countries using these metrics much more aggressively to decide which treatments they’ll fund. We must stand against that in the United States. The government shouldn’t decide which lives are valuable enough for care.
You can watch the speech here.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://johnrose.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-rose-speaks-support-bill-banning-use-quality-adjusted-life-years-qualys