Representatives Turner, Jordan, and Lee Explain the Significance of Recently Passed DREAMER Act

Today with the passing of the DREAMER Act (Decrease Research Expenses Act for Medical Expenditure Research), new steps were made in changing the dynamics in the healthcare world, as this new bill will provide many full-ride scholarships for low-income medical students and promote more growth in doctors during the current shortage.

Representatives Tim Turner, Jim Jordan, and Summer Lee, authors of this bill, stated that this bill will create new opportunities for medical students that lack the resources or economic stability to attend medical school, as well as limit the power of large corporations in favor of small businesses and medical research. This was done through a decrease of taxes by 2.4% while raising the flat tax by 1% in order to cramp the power of larger corporations- ultimately to foster competition in the healthcare field. The funds allocated from the flat tax increase will now be used to provide full-ride scholarships to students in need without hindering the capabilities of small businesses and research.

According to Representative Jordan, this bill is unique in comparison to other legislature previously considered by the House of Representatives because “a lot of the bills we’ve discussed were focusing on access to healthcare, but one thing that we really wanted to emphasize was the quality of care.

“I think that the fact that this has been passed has several applications, including increased access to care but also the fact that we’re sort of hindering these big businesses and increasing competition by helping these smaller businesses and I think it’s really essential,” Jordan said.

In their authorship speech, the three conveyed a strong and passionate delivery of the truth of the healthcare system in America: “We’ve seen time and time again that the large medical monopolies are taking over our industry. They’re buying out small companies and they have absolutely no care for the citizens of America”. This bill was seemingly a bipartisan one, as it was passed with an overwhelming majority- much to the pleasure of the authors.

Turner himself expressed that “This has a lot of implications including lowering the price of healthcare… the price of drugs, disbanding these monopolies, and incentivizing more people for medical school, which is really our intent here… We’re really excited about this bill”.

This article was written by Mackenzie Temple.