For further information:
Jessica Rodgers, 202-626-8825, mediarelations@nrlc.org

NRLC URGES REPEAL OF OBAMA HEALTH LAW'S INDEPENDENT PAYMENT ADVISORY BOARD
Board Would Limit What Americans Could Spend to Save Their Lives

WASHINGTON – Today, the National Right to Life Committee, the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, called for quick approval of a bill that would repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board established by the Affordable Care Act ("ObamaCare"). The Medicare Decisions Accountability Act (HR 452), which is sponsored by Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) and 226 co-sponsors, is scheduled for consideration at tomorrow's meeting of the Subcommittee on Health of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee.

"Repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) is critical to prevent the rationing of life-saving medical treatment," said Burke Balch, J.D., director of National Right to Life's Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics. "The IPAB would recommend drastic limits for the Department of Health and Human Services to impose on what Americans are allowed to spend out of their own funds to save their own lives and the lives of their families."

In a letter to members of the Subcommittee on Health, National Right to Life noted that "[t]he Obama law directs the Board to issue recommendations to limit what ordinary citizens and their health insurance coverage can pay for medical treatment so as to prevent it from keeping up with the rate of medical inflation."

The letter also noted that in order to "implement these recommendations, the Department of Health and Human Services is empowered to impose so-called 'quality' and 'efficiency' measures on health care providers. Doctors who violate a 'quality' standard by prescribing more life-saving medical treatment than it permits will be disqualified from contracting with any of the health insurance plans that individual Americans, under the Obama Health Care Law, will be mandated to purchase."

For further details and documentation, see: http://nrlc.co/y5Dcrj

"Simply put, the IPAB is bad medicine," added Balch. "It is outrageous that a government entity would be allowed to dictate and limit what Americans could spend – of their own money – to save their own lives."

Founded in 1968, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates and more than 3,000 local chapters, is the nation's oldest and largest grassroots pro-life organization. Recognized as the flagship of the pro-life movement, NRLC works through legislation and education to protect innocent human life from abortion, infanticide, assisted suicide and euthanasia.