Obamacare vs. Obamacare Lite

Written by David E. Smith

Illinois families have been devastated by Obamacare through rising premiums and higher deductibles. In rural areas of our state, fewer insurers mean less competition and an increase in costs even as choice is limited.

Apparently, we must remind U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and the political leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives that the National Republican Platform calls for the repeal of Obamacare and that many Congressional Republicans ran on a platform of appealing this big government mandate and program.

No more important issue exists than the current plan’s defunding of Planned Parenthood. Why then, are they proposing to do this for just one year? Tax funds should be cut off immediately and permanently to this pernicious organization that has been caught trafficking in human baby body parts and promotes, supports, and assists pro-“choice” candidates for public office.

As several prominent conservatives have stated, “Full repeal” of Obamacare “is the only solvent way forward.” Budget cuts that are promised in future years “never come to fruition.” We cannot keep “much of the Medicaid expansion” and expect costs to taxpayers to go down.

As Daniel Horowitz writes, failing to repeal Obamacare’s “funding mechanism” guarantees that prices will go up under the un-amended current plan, while they would “clearly go down dramatically under full repeal.” Horowitz also writes that given that the current proposal “keeps almost all the critical price-hiking regulations in place and then gets rid of the individual mandate, premiums will go up, not down.”

Can the proposed “three phases” actually work? Horowitz writes:

[T]he timeline is very important here. If this bill does not bring immediate relief, and in fact exacerbates the death spiral, the private market, along with GOP political capital, will be dead by 2020. The new regime will never be in place, especially not during the reelection of President Trump. We will either have a massive bail out or a single-payer system by that point.

Daniel Horowitz adds:

Republicans have only one choice that is solvent, fair, Constitutional, and politically feasible. That is full repeal of all the Obamacare regulations effective as soon as possible and a transition period to phase out subsidies as the private market heals. That is the only way to heal Medicaid. That is the only way to ensure there is only a limited need for subsidization in the first place. The American people want to afford quality care and insurance on their own. There is no short cut and there are no other options.

There are many more facets of the original bill that could be highlighted as troublesome, but I will close by including an interview with former U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) who explains succinctly that the fatal flaw in the “American Health Care Act” is the absence of the requirement for price discovery, which is the free market key to lowering health care costs.

Take ACTION:  Take a moment to call your U.S. Representative to urge him or her to reject the Ryan proposal as introduced and to ask them to repeal Obamacare in full.  The U.S. Capitol switchboard number is (202) 224-3121.