Representative Kevin Hern (OK-01), chair of the Healthy Futures Task Force subcommittee on affordability, hosted the first meeting of subcommittee members on Monday this week. Members of the subcommittee include Representatives Rick Allen and Victoria Spartz. 

“Americans have been demanding an answer to rising health care costs,” said Rep. Hern. “Today we took our first step towards a solution. It’s going to take time, but we are committed to empowering patients and lowering the cost of healthcare.” 

Hern invited several witnesses to join the subcommittee for a discussion on how best to define affordability and identify the root causes of increased healthcare costs. The witnesses were: Brian Blasé, CEO of Blasé Policy Strategies and senior research fellow at the Galen Institute and at the Foundation for Government Accountability, and former special assistant to the President on the White House’s National Economic Council (NEC); Doug Holtz-Eakin, President of the American Action Forum, a former CBO Director and Chief Economist of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA); Eric Hargan, Founder and CEO of the Hargan group, and former Deputy Secretary and Chief Regulator Officer at the Department of Health and Human Services; Kevin Kuhlman, Vice President of Federal Government Relations at the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB); and Benedic Ippolito, Senior Fellow at American Enterprise Institute. 

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