Congressman Jody Hice was born in Atlanta and raised in Tucker, Georgia. Representative Hice graduated from Asbury University, earned his Master’s degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, as well as a Doctor of Ministry from Luther Rice College and Seminary. Congressman Hice served as pastor in three Georgia counties for almost 25 years, and went on to launch the Jody Hice Show, a conservative talk radio program. Congressman Hice and his wife of over thirty years, Dee Dee, reside in Oglethorpe County and have two daughters and four grandchildren. Congressman Hice took office in 2015 as the Representative of Georgia’s 10th Congressional District and serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the House Natural Resources Committee. For the 117th Congress, he serves as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Government Operations for the Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Since the Affordable Care Act – commonly referred to as Obamacare – became law, millions of Americans have lost their health insurance plans, exchanges have collapsed, and premiums have skyrocketed. Instead of increasing the access and improving the quality of healthcare in America, Obamacare has instead increased taxes, destroyed jobs, and grown the national debt. In 2017, Georgians will see their insurance premiums jump by double-digits as many large insurance carriers pull out of the Obamacare exchanges, including Humana. As we enter the sixth year of Obamacare, it is clear that this law is coming off the tracks and hurtling towards the unmitigated disaster that Congressman Hice predicted years ago.
Congressman Hice remains committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare. As we work to eliminate Obamacare’s disastrous policies, we must also work to address the serious challenges that existed in our healthcare system even before President Obama’s law came into effect.
We need to increase competition to lower healthcare costs by allowing Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines, and enable small businesses to pool together to negotiate for more favorable insurance rates. We must reform medical malpractice laws in a commonsense way that limits trial lawyer fees and non-economic damages while maintaining strong protections for patients. We need to reform the tax code to allow families and individuals to deduct healthcare costs, just like companies, providing all Americans with a standard deduction for health insurance. We need to expand access to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) by increasing the amount of pre-tax dollars Americans can deposit into portable savings accounts to be used for healthcare expenses. We must also protect individuals with pre-existing conditions from being discriminated against by health insurance companies by bolstering state-based high risk pools.
To accomplish these reforms, Congressman Hice is supporter of both Congressman Phil Roe’s (R-TN) American Healthcare Reform Act (AHCRA), one of the leading Republican Obamacare alternatives, and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) A Better Way healthcare agenda, which encompasses all the proposals outlined above. Any new healthcare reform must embody patient-centered, free market principles and roll back Obamacare’s government takeover of our healthcare system.