We can have an immediate impact on improving healthcare by removing state-by-state restrictions and encouraging national competition among insurers, implementing meaningful tort reform, and creating incentives for the use of healthcare savings account so consumers are better informed and have a financial stake in managing their health.
Back healthcare changes that remove state-by-state restrictions, encourage national insurer competition, implement meaningful tort reform, and expand incentives for health savings accounts.
Occurrences
Evidence
Healthcare: Americans experience the best healthcare at affordable prices when big insurance and big government aren’t meddlesome middlemen interfering in the doctor patient relationship. ObamaCare is not the answer to providing better medical care or reducing costs, but rather amplifies the problems with our current system. We can have an immediate impact on improving healthcare by removing state-by-state restrictions and encouraging national competition among insurers, implementing meaningful tort reform, and creating incentives for the use of healthcare savings account so consumers are better informed and have a financial stake in managing their health.
Cosponsors include Scott DesJarlais (TN). The bill title and full title state it would repeal title I of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and amend the Public Health Service Act to provide for cooperative governing of individual health insurance coverage offered in interstate commerce.
The House voted on passage of H.R. 1628, the American Health Care Act, with 217 ayes and 213 noes. DesJarlais’s office said he supported the amended bill with state waivers, describing it as emphasizing federalism, free markets, competition and personal choice, and saying it included waivers for states to opt out of harmful Obamacare regulations.
The House passed the Increasing Access to Lower Premium Plans and Expanding Health Savings Accounts Act of 2018 by 242 to 176. The related bill record on GovInfo identifies H.R. 6311 as the House-engrossed measure to amend the tax code and the Affordable Care Act to allow lower-premium copper plans and expand health savings accounts.
Bill Number H.R. 6311. Bill Version Engrossed in House (EH). Short Title: Increasing Access to Lower Premium Plans and Expanding Health Savings Accounts Act of 2018. Full Title: An Act To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to modify the definition of qualified health plan for purposes of the health insurance premium tax credit and to allow individuals purchasing health insurance in the individual market to purchase a lower premium copper plan.
Introduced on June 4, 2015 with DesJarlais among the original sponsors, the bill would repeal the ACA, expand health-insurance deductions and HSAs, restore competition rules for health insurance, and create a malpractice safe harbor tied to clinical guidelines.
Section 71307 makes bronze and catastrophic exchange plans count as high-deductible health plans for HSA purposes, and section 71308 gives direct primary care arrangements favorable treatment under the HSA rules.
Assessments
This was a multi-part healthcare pledge. DesJarlais materially advanced matching legislation during his House service, including bills on interstate insurance competition, tort reform, and HSA expansion, and he supported broader ACA-replacement measures, but those core packages did not become law. A later enacted 2025 federal law delivered a real but narrower HSA-related portion of the promise by expanding favorable HSA treatment for certain plans and direct primary care arrangements. There is not comparable evidence that the interstate-competition and meaningful tort-reform parts were enacted. Using federal office timing and candidate-credit rules, that supports partial rather than full delivery, with the realized portion arriving in a later term.
The promise bundled several healthcare changes: interstate/national insurance competition, tort reform, and expanded HSA incentives. DesJarlais materially backed bills matching much of the agenda, including H.R. 762, H.R. 1628, H.R. 6311, and especially H.R. 2653, but those broader competition and tort-reform measures were not enacted. A later enacted federal law did deliver a meaningful HSA-related portion by expanding HSA treatment for bronze/catastrophic plans and direct primary care arrangements. Because only one substantial slice of the multi-part promise became law, with the rest left incomplete, the best outcome is partial rather than delivered.
DesJarlais did back measures aligned with the promise, including interstate insurance legislation, the American Health Care Act, and a House-passed HSA expansion bill. However, the promised healthcare changes were not enacted as a complete federal outcome: the cited interstate competition and HSA bills did not become law, the AHCA failed in the Senate, and there is no evidence that meaningful tort reform or the full package of changes was delivered. This supports serious legislative effort but not fulfillment of the promised outcome.