Assign a 'primary' menu

The Worst Part of Replacing Obamacare So Far- Replace

You are here:
Home
Blog
The Constitution
The Worst Part of Replacing Obamacare So Far- Replace

Why does every mention the elimination of Obamacare have to be immediately followed with the word “replace”?

The Part I Don’t Like About Repeal and Replace is Replace

I’m probably not far from the rest of those people who feel that our government is headed in the wrong direction when I suggest that they just repeal Obamacare and leave it at that for now.

Has any politician noted yet that a repeal is still going to leave us with a major healthcare marketplace problem and that is Medicare and Medicaid which are both already going broke? Plus, all the rest of the already existing regulatory control over the healthcare market that has helped to drive costs up to record levels year after year.

Fact is, the healthcare marketplace even before Obamacare was already very heavily regulated. Obamacare was simply the icing on the government control cake.

As the following commentary notes, Republicans already voted twice to repeal (replace NOT included) Why can’t they do that again?

[youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luva50n0Xkg” controls=”no” rel=”no” theme=”light”]

Repeal the darn thing. Give it a time frame before the repeal kicks in. While you are at it allow for the greatest amount of competition in the market. Get out of the consumers way and allow them to choose without penalty.

Obamacare Lite- Four Ways It Fails

As Rand Paul has suggested, the Ryancare plan is nothing more than Obamacare lite.

1. It retains subsidies. Obamacare had subsidies for people to buy insurance. Ryancare keeps the subsidies under the label of refundable tax credits.

As Paul told Breitbart News:

[quote]Some people are predicting that it’s actually going to be more expensive than the subsidies we have under Obamacare. This isn’t you getting your own money back, this is you getting somebody else’s money.

So, a family that makes $30,000 a year could actually get $14,000 that they didn’t pay. Let’s say they paid zero in income tax, they could get $14,000 back.

One, we don’t have the money — it’s a new entitlement program.

And two, if you get $14,000 back do you think the insurance company is ever going to sell insurance for less than $14,000? That becomes the floor. So, it actually pushes insurance rates up — it doesn’t allow insurance rates to fall. So, that doesn’t allow insurance rates to fall and it sets up a new entitlement. [/quote]

2. After a year, the Cadillac tax on better plans returns. That’s called penalizing success- a traditional liberal technique.

3. The individual mandate forcing you into the healthcare marketplace remains. Except you pay the insurance company instead of the government. Big whoop of a change huh? Another liberal technique, force people to act the way you want them by removing their freedom of choice through the coercive force of government.

4. Ryancare keeps insurance company subsidies allowing up to $100 million of reinsurance provided by public money. That is likely to go up over time once they get that foot in the door btw.

Essentially, the most egregious aspects of Obamacare remain with just a few label changes and redirection. The public meanwhile continues to lose their freedom of choice and nothing is really done to allow for a free market to operate in the healthcare marketplace.

What’s Missing From the Discussion?

The part never discussed by any politician including President Trump as well, is a discussion on whether the Federal government has any place at all, from a Constitutional perspective, in the healthcare marketplace.

It should, with an informed public, be needless to say but isn’t because the public is not well-informed as a whole but…..there really is no Constitutional authority for the Federal government to meddle in a free market which healthcare actually is or should be anyway.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, there is nothing more permanent than a government program. Once they get a foot in the door, it nearly impossible to get them out of where they never belonged in the first place.

Now, we all are expected to simply assume that we need government to run our healthcare system. We can’t be trusted to spend our earned income wisely in a free market. How could we possibly be that intelligent? Now we all need Nanny Government to make our decisions for us within their pre-determined limits, enforced by law of course.

Rand Paul’s Offering

While it’s not perfect (nothing ever will be) its way more free market than the Ryancare plan. Rand Paul’s plan suggests that we:

• legalize inexpensive insurance plans (Students used to be able to purchase cheap insurance plans. Not since Obamacare.)

• remove many of the regulations currently restricting the use of Health Savings Accounts (HSA);

• allow individuals to deduct the cost of their health insurance from their income and payroll taxes;

• expand Association Health Plans (AHPs) to allow small business owners and individuals to band together across state lines through their membership in a trade or professional association to purchase health coverage for their families and employees at a lower cost;

• increase access to health coverage by creating an interstate market for health insurance that allows insurers licensed to sell policies in one state to offer them to residents of any other state;

• provide states new flexibilities for Medicaid waivers for innovative state plan designs;

• allow non-economically aligned physicians to negotiate for higher quality healthcare for their patients; and

• allow physicians to deduct a portion of the costs incurred from uncompensated care.

You’d think Republicans would be embracing these suggestions since they promote more free market considerations. They aren’t for the most part.

A disturbing trend and not what the public voted for when they elected Donald Trump. They better get their, you know what together or they will end up out of office. Let’s hope they listen to Rand Paul and the Freedom Caucus suggestions or the Trump election is going to a very disappointing and failed experiment.