GOP Policy Committee chairman says healthcare advisory board a target for defunding

Rep. Tom Price (Ga.), the new Republican Policy Committee chairman, said Wednesday morning that Republicans can be expected to defund a key healthcare advisory board in the new Congress.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) created the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which is charged with finding ways to reduce the rapidly growing pace of Medicare spending. More specifically, the board is required to project spending growth and offer proposals for limiting growth when it is too fast.

While the board will begin its work in 2015, Republicans have argued that it will end up making decisions to ration healthcare. In a Wednesday interview with C-SPAN, Price called the board a "rationing entity."

More broadly, Price said, this week's planned vote to repeal the PPACA is "important" because it would fulfill a promise Republicans made to voters. He acknowledged, however, that full repeal is unlikely, and said Republican-led committees would work to achieve a Republican vision of healthcare reform in the new Congress.