GOP rolls out healthcare legislation

Republican senators on Monday offered their own healthcare legislation that would effectively prohibit the government from using “comparative effectiveness research,” which the GOP said leads to micro-management of medical procedures.

The Preserving Access to Targeted, Individualized, and Effective New Treatments and Services (PATIENTS) Act was introduced by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) on Monday.

The senators said “comparative effectiveness research” is commonly used in “socialized healthcare systems.”

“Americans don’t want Washington-run insurance companies any more than they want Washington-run car companies,” Kyl said in a statement. “We should stick to a basic principle that all Americans should be able to choose the doctor, hospital, and health plan of their choice.”

The legislation, of course, comes on the same day that President Obama delivered a speech on his principles for healthcare reform to the American Medical Association.

The language (“socialized” healthcare and “government run” healthcare) closely, and predictably, follows what has become the Republican attack lines of the Democrats’s plan.

jeremy.jacobs@digital-stage.thehill.com