(Dallas, TX) A new congressional resolution explicitly states what an ideal health system should look like: It should take care of sick people.

Introduced by Pete Sessions (R-TX) and cosponsored by Mark Meadows (R-NC) and other House Republicans, the resolution says that states should be given broad authority to reform their own insurance markets, provided that “individuals with pre-existing conditions experience lower premiums, lower out-of-pocket costs and greater accessibility to in-network providers.”

“Obamacare has not been kind to people with medical problems,” said John Goodman, a health economist who helped with the resolution. “Premiums have doubled and tripled, deductibles are two to three times as high as a typical employer plan, and there has been a race to the bottom on quality and access to care,” he said.

Democratic candidates in many races are promising to preserve the status quo for people with preexisting conditions, in response to Republican attempts to repeal Obamacare. Some Republicans are now saying the status quo is not good enough.

“For the first time in eight years, Republicans in Congress are adopting a vision of what health reform should aim for,” said Goodman. The resolution says its goal is:

“ensuring that individuals who pay premiums to group health plans and then become too sick to work have access to individual health insurance coverage that is similar to such group health plans in price, quality, and access to care, regardless of any preexisting condition.”

The resolution also calls for something that is explicitly outlawed under Obamacare: a market in which health plans specialize in certain diseases and compete to enroll and solve the problems of patients who have those conditions.

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