Repeal, replace health care law
By Rep. Mike Pompeo
The U.S. Supreme Court did no one any favors last week.
Our health care system desperately needs improvement and reform, but Obamacare is only adding to its problems. Rather than bring down the spiraling cost of health care, it has dramatically increased insurance costs for millions of Americans – raising the average cost of a family policy by $1,200. Obamacare also places huge and burdensome mandates on employers, raising the cost of new employees significantly, effectively stopping employers from hiring, and dragging down the rest of our economy.
Under Obamacare, millions of patients will lose their current coverage, lose the doctor they like, and be dumped into government care. Rather than prevent Medicare’s bankruptcy, Obamacare took $500 billion from it to help pay for the legislation. After Obamacare passed, Medicare’s insolvency date actually crept forward to 2024 – a mere 12 years away.
Obamacare is not and never was the solution the president made it out to be. Had the court dismantled Obamacare, it would have paved the way for reform of our health care delivery system that will actually work.
Because it did not, the hard work of repeal remains ahead – and now depends entirely on a change in the political landscape.
The president has led us on an expensive, four-year detour that will not solve the main problems: skyrocketing health care costs and uninsured citizens.
The good news is that viable solutions to cost and coverage problems do exist.
First, Congress needs to clear away Obamacare and start fresh. Then we should reform Medicaid, allowing states to develop innovative ideas to drive down costs. We can save Medicare by transitioning to a new model where consumers receive both the necessary information and the incentive to control costs.
By expanding health savings accounts, we can put the consumer in the driver’s seat of health decisions. We can allow health insurance policies to be purchased across state lines, which will expand competition, increase economies of scale in health care, and drive down health care costs for everyone.
We should enact comprehensive medical-malpractice reform to drive down costs and help stem the unaffordable practice of defensive medicine. Perhaps most significantly, we need to put employer-provided health insurance on an equal tax footing with policies obtained directly by consumers.
Moves like these will provide patient-centered care, create alternatives to fee-for-service medicine, reduce the role of third-party payments, and lead to better value for America’s health care spending.
By upholding Obamacare, the court has thrown the problem back in Congress’ lap to resolve. If the Republican House is joined by a Republican Senate and President Mitt Romney next year, I’m confident that we will repeal Obamacare and replace it with reforms that will drive down health care costs and allow us to create the greatest health care system in the world.
The possibility for real reform still exists, but now we are going to have to get it done the hard way.
My Take: No Mike, your solutions will only provide slight relief from Obamacare. If you really want to reform health care in this country you have to get the government completely out of it! This would mean that you would turn over the provision of healthcare services completely back to the unhampered free market like it used to be before the FDA, AMA and medical licensing boards. Here is an excerpt from a 2009 article by Laurance Vance on how we should really go about reforming healthcare:
Republicans are good at opposing health care reform when it is Hillarycare or Obamacare, but not very good when it is Bushcare or Republicancare.
Looking at the Republican track record, it is clear that opposing the Democrats’ health care reform proposals does not mean that one supports a free market for medical care.
Among the Republicans in Congress, only Ron Paul seems to know that government intervention in health care is the problem and not the solution:
Government has been mismanaging medical care for more than 45 years; for every problem it has created it has responded by exponentially expanding the role of government.
It is surreal that in a free country we are talking only about HOW government should fix health care, rather than WHY government should fix health care.
If the Republicans in Congress were really serious about a free market in health insurance and freedom in medical care, then they would support things like medical savings accounts, allowing the use of pre-tax dollars to purchase medical insurance, a 100 percent tax credit for medical insurance and expenses, medical insurance sales across state lines, complete deregulation of the health insurance industry, unrestricted freedom of contract between insurers and insurees and between doctors and patients, the freedom of insurers to discriminate based on the perceived risk of any individual or group, the absolute right of refusal for any preexisting condition, and the repeal of any federal law related to drugs, health insurance, or medical care.
Likewise, they would oppose things like medical licensing laws, mandatory health insurance, the FDA, the Department of Health and Human Services, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, the National Institutes of Health, the war on drugs, restrictions on the sale of medical devices, federal laboratories, federal funding of community health centers, federal grants for medical research, federal funding of clinical trials, federal funding for family planning, community rating laws, mandated insurance coverages, medical record requirements, federal databases of American’s medical records, import quotas on sugar and corn subsidies that together encourage the use of HFCS, special privileges for the AMA or Big Pharma, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act which forces hospitals to treat anyone regardless of their ability to pay, restrictions on a free market in organs, federal nutrition guidelines, federal vaccination programs, HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives, AIDS funding for Africa, and government mandates, controls, or regulations of any kind on physicians, dentists, nurses, midwives, psychiatrists, psychologists, hospitals, pharmacists, insurance companies, nursing homes, drug companies, or practitioners of holistic, chiropractic, homeopathic, nutritional, or and other form of alternative medicine.
The only reason all of this seems like such a radical prescription is that federal intervention into medicine, health care, and medical insurance is so pervasive, so systemic. It is because the federal leviathan has its tentacles so firmly wrapped around these things that market solutions seem so drastic.
Conservatives who revere the Constitution should support a real free market in health insurance and real freedom in health care. Nowhere does the Constitution authorize the federal government to provide or subsidize health care or have any control over the medical or insurance industries.
We don’t need stronger public-private partnerships. We don’t need to build on the strength on the free market system. We don’t need new health courts. We don’t need these or any other Republican gimmicks that fall short of real freedom or band-aids that cover up the real problem. We need a real free market in health insurance and real freedom in health care.
There is no right to affordable health insurance or taxpayer-funded health care anymore than there is a right to gourmet meals, designer clothing, vacation homes, sports cars, or Super Bowl tickets. No American has the right to health care at the expense of another American’s right to keep the fruit of his labor or spend it as he chooses.
Government interference in the market is always the problem and never the solution.
Copyright © 2009 Campaign for Liberty
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/07/01/2392391/repeal-replace-health-care-law.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/07/01/2392391/repeal-replace-health-care-law.html#storylink=cpy
Our health care system desperately needs improvement and reform, but Obamacare is only adding to its problems. Rather than bring down the spiraling cost of health care, it has dramatically increased insurance costs for millions of Americans – raising the average cost of a family policy by $1,200. Obamacare also places huge and burdensome mandates on employers, raising the cost of new employees significantly, effectively stopping employers from hiring, and dragging down the rest of our economy.
Under Obamacare, millions of patients will lose their current coverage, lose the doctor they like, and be dumped into government care. Rather than prevent Medicare’s bankruptcy, Obamacare took $500 billion from it to help pay for the legislation. After Obamacare passed, Medicare’s insolvency date actually crept forward to 2024 – a mere 12 years away.
Obamacare is not and never was the solution the president made it out to be. Had the court dismantled Obamacare, it would have paved the way for reform of our health care delivery system that will actually work.
Because it did not, the hard work of repeal remains ahead – and now depends entirely on a change in the political landscape.
The president has led us on an expensive, four-year detour that will not solve the main problems: skyrocketing health care costs and uninsured citizens.
The good news is that viable solutions to cost and coverage problems do exist.
First, Congress needs to clear away Obamacare and start fresh. Then we should reform Medicaid, allowing states to develop innovative ideas to drive down costs. We can save Medicare by transitioning to a new model where consumers receive both the necessary information and the incentive to control costs.
By expanding health savings accounts, we can put the consumer in the driver’s seat of health decisions. We can allow health insurance policies to be purchased across state lines, which will expand competition, increase economies of scale in health care, and drive down health care costs for everyone.
We should enact comprehensive medical-malpractice reform to drive down costs and help stem the unaffordable practice of defensive medicine. Perhaps most significantly, we need to put employer-provided health insurance on an equal tax footing with policies obtained directly by consumers.
Moves like these will provide patient-centered care, create alternatives to fee-for-service medicine, reduce the role of third-party payments, and lead to better value for America’s health care spending.
By upholding Obamacare, the court has thrown the problem back in Congress’ lap to resolve. If the Republican House is joined by a Republican Senate and President Mitt Romney next year, I’m confident that we will repeal Obamacare and replace it with reforms that will drive down health care costs and allow us to create the greatest health care system in the world.
The possibility for real reform still exists, but now we are going to have to get it done the hard way.
Mike Pompeo is a Republican member of Congress from Wichita.
My Take: No Mike, your solutions will only provide slight relief from Obamacare. If you really want to reform health care in this country you have to get the government completely out of it! This would mean that you would turn over the provision of healthcare services completely back to the unhampered free market like it used to be before the FDA, AMA and medical licensing boards. Here is an excerpt from a 2009 article by Laurance Vance on how we should really go about reforming healthcare:
Republicans are good at opposing health care reform when it is Hillarycare or Obamacare, but not very good when it is Bushcare or Republicancare.
Looking at the Republican track record, it is clear that opposing the Democrats’ health care reform proposals does not mean that one supports a free market for medical care.
Among the Republicans in Congress, only Ron Paul seems to know that government intervention in health care is the problem and not the solution:
Government has been mismanaging medical care for more than 45 years; for every problem it has created it has responded by exponentially expanding the role of government.
It is surreal that in a free country we are talking only about HOW government should fix health care, rather than WHY government should fix health care.
If the Republicans in Congress were really serious about a free market in health insurance and freedom in medical care, then they would support things like medical savings accounts, allowing the use of pre-tax dollars to purchase medical insurance, a 100 percent tax credit for medical insurance and expenses, medical insurance sales across state lines, complete deregulation of the health insurance industry, unrestricted freedom of contract between insurers and insurees and between doctors and patients, the freedom of insurers to discriminate based on the perceived risk of any individual or group, the absolute right of refusal for any preexisting condition, and the repeal of any federal law related to drugs, health insurance, or medical care.
Likewise, they would oppose things like medical licensing laws, mandatory health insurance, the FDA, the Department of Health and Human Services, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, the National Institutes of Health, the war on drugs, restrictions on the sale of medical devices, federal laboratories, federal funding of community health centers, federal grants for medical research, federal funding of clinical trials, federal funding for family planning, community rating laws, mandated insurance coverages, medical record requirements, federal databases of American’s medical records, import quotas on sugar and corn subsidies that together encourage the use of HFCS, special privileges for the AMA or Big Pharma, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act which forces hospitals to treat anyone regardless of their ability to pay, restrictions on a free market in organs, federal nutrition guidelines, federal vaccination programs, HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives, AIDS funding for Africa, and government mandates, controls, or regulations of any kind on physicians, dentists, nurses, midwives, psychiatrists, psychologists, hospitals, pharmacists, insurance companies, nursing homes, drug companies, or practitioners of holistic, chiropractic, homeopathic, nutritional, or and other form of alternative medicine.
The only reason all of this seems like such a radical prescription is that federal intervention into medicine, health care, and medical insurance is so pervasive, so systemic. It is because the federal leviathan has its tentacles so firmly wrapped around these things that market solutions seem so drastic.
Conservatives who revere the Constitution should support a real free market in health insurance and real freedom in health care. Nowhere does the Constitution authorize the federal government to provide or subsidize health care or have any control over the medical or insurance industries.
We don’t need stronger public-private partnerships. We don’t need to build on the strength on the free market system. We don’t need new health courts. We don’t need these or any other Republican gimmicks that fall short of real freedom or band-aids that cover up the real problem. We need a real free market in health insurance and real freedom in health care.
There is no right to affordable health insurance or taxpayer-funded health care anymore than there is a right to gourmet meals, designer clothing, vacation homes, sports cars, or Super Bowl tickets. No American has the right to health care at the expense of another American’s right to keep the fruit of his labor or spend it as he chooses.
Government interference in the market is always the problem and never the solution.
Copyright © 2009 Campaign for Liberty
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/07/01/2392391/repeal-replace-health-care-law.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2012/07/01/2392391/repeal-replace-health-care-law.html#storylink=cpy
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave your comments at length. All that I ask is that you keep it clean and do not personally attack anyone. Thanks.