1.1: Obamacare
Repeal Obamacare and pass a replacement that saves lives and money by empowering patients and doctors, not bureaucrats and
politicians.
Other Information:
REPEAL Obamacare is a disaster and the first task of my administration will be to repeal it. The Obamacare law is unconstitutional,
unaffordable, unworkable, and stunningly unfair. Its so-called "individual mandate" is blatantly unconstitutional and an unprecedented
expansion of federal power. In addition to the unconstitutional nature of individual and employer mandates, we are learning
that they simply don’t work. If the federal government can coerce individuals—by threat of fines—to buy health insurance,
there is no stopping the federal government from forcing Americans to buy any good or service. Their intractable problem is
this: once you have a mandate, the government has to specify exactly what coverage must be included in insurance for it to
qualify. This introduces political considerations into determining these minimum standards, guaranteeing that nothing desired
by the special interests will be left out. And once the government mandates such expensive insurance, the government becomes
responsible for its costs. It has to adopt expensive subsidies to help people pay for the expensive plans that it is requiring.
The resulting cost to the taxpayer and strain on the budget leads the government to try and control healthcare costs by limiting
healthcare services. The inevitable result is rationing by a nameless, faceless, unaccountable board of government bureaucrats.
The Obamacare law also creates one thousand, nine hundred and sixty eight separate grants of power to bureaucrats, most of
them to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and her bureaucracy. It creates 159 new boards, agencies and other government
entities to administer health decisions that should be up to the individual in consultation with their doctor. This unprecedented
grant of discretionary power to unelected bureaucrats guarantees the rise in arbitrary and corrupted decision-making by the
federal government. For these reasons and more, I will fight for the repeal of Obamacare until it is repealed in its entirety.
We must either limit government or we will have government limit us. REPLACE As I carry the banner in fighting for the repeal
of Obamacare, I will advocate for specific replacement health policies that will create a free market framework for healthcare,
provide affordable, portable, and reliable healthcare coverage, and establish a healthcare safety net focused on those in
need. This system will assure healthcare for all with no individual mandate or employer mandate of any kind. This alternative
to Obamacare begins with patient power and localism and the many common sense ideas developed over the past eight years at
the Center for Health Transformation. Over the next year, I look forward to discussing solutions for a pro-market replacement
for Obamacare that puts top priority on empowering patients, focusing on the doctor-patient relationship, using the best new
science to save lives and save money, lowering medical costs, and improving the quality of life for every single American.
We must take advantage of the unparalleled resources we already have: The United States has the best doctors, the best medical
schools, and the best hospitals in the world. Our entrepreneurial spirit and drive for innovation has already produced medical
advances once considered unimaginable. Replacement legislation must build on these strengths. It must include provisions to
make health insurance more affordable and portable by allowing Americans to purchase insurance across state lines. It must
increase price competition in healthcare. It must improve patient safety and decrease overhead costs by digitizing all medical
records, and it must introduce lawsuit reform to stop the frivolous lawsuits that drive up the cost of medicine. Instead of
an individual mandate penalty for not buying government approved health insurance, the federal tax code should be reformed
to provide every American the choice of a generous tax credit or the ability to deduct the value of their health insurance
up to a certain amount. The federal tax code should provide the same tax relief for the individual buying his own insurance
as the employer providing health insurance to its employees. This will lower costs for individuals and families, and will
make it easier for people to obtain portable insurance they can take with them from job to job. If you don’t like your employer’s
insurance, you get the same tax relief if you buy the insurance of your choice. Employers should also be allowed to buy individually-owned
insurance for their employees, instead of non-portable, group insurance. This approach provides a foundation of equal fairness
for all, rather than the favoritism and rank discrimination of the Obamacare bureaucracies and the current system. We should
extend Health Savings Accounts throughout the healthcare system. Everyone on Medicare should be free to choose an HSA as part
of their coverage if they want it. Everyone on Medicaid should be free to choose an HSA for part of his or her coverage. All
workers should be free to use their health insurance tax credit or deduction to choose an HSA in place of their employer-provided
health insurance if they desire. These are a few examples of reforms that we can enact, once Obamacare is repealed, that will
transform our current healthcare system into one centered on the individual, where patients and doctors have power, not Washington
bureaucrats.
Indicator(s):
|
