Friday, March 24, 2017

Letting Obamacare Crash

There are lots of things wrong with RyanCare. 

 

It continues to subsidize healthcare for illegals and refugees and it isn’t clear that insurance companies will be able to offer low cost cafeteria type policies if it passes. It would not decrease the cost of healthcare. It would simply transfer the cost shifting for the sick and poor from the consumer to the federal government.

 

The opponents of RyanCare are correct. If it passes, it could be the basis of permanent federal law with all of its flaws and costs.  Opponents won the amendment to remove Obamacare mandated coverage.  Now they want to allow insurance companies to impose lifetime caps and raise prices based on usage and reform tort law to reduce malpractice lawsuit costs.   

 

The US House should take the current RyanCare Bill to the floor for amendments to see if they can make it worth passing.

 

If the US House cannot pass anything, it could send the old Repeal Bill to the Senate to use the nuclear option to pass it with 51 votes. 

 

If Congress fails to pass anything, they could also just let Obamacare fall apart as more insurance companies back out.

 

The cleanest approach would be to simply repeal Obamacare in its entirety to remove future challenges to future changes.  Then a simple bill allowing insurance to sell across State lines could follow.  It should also include health savings accounts. This would allow consumers to take control.  This approach would remove the “supreme power” Tom Price at HHS currently has under Obamacare.

 

There is no reason for Congress to retain any aspects of Obamacare.  A simple “repeal” should bring us back to what we had before Obamacare.  There is no reason to believe that voters want to keep Obamacare.

 

The federal government needs to remove itself from healthcare completely. Moving it to the States is a start, but States should also get out of the healthcare business as soon as possible.

 

Many physicians have decided that insurance has no future in funding healthcare.  If providers can handle the finances involved, they should be able to do it. 

 

If we see a significant decline in healthcare product advertising on TV, we will know that costs are being reduced and this scam is coming to an end.

 

The US GDP for 2016 was $18.56 trillion and healthcare is 17% of US GDP, so we are spending $3.16 trillion a year on healthcare.  That is double what it should be.

 


Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

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