Republicans Break Faith With America

I believe medical insurance reform is essential. I also believe the Obama/Dem effort at reform was a debacle of lies to Americans. Obamacare/ACA must be completely scraped to rebuild an actual affordable medical insurance plan. Justin Smith has the critique.

JRH 10/2/17

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Republicans Break Faith With America

A System Going South

By Justin O. Smith

Sent 10/1/2017 1:23 AM

Americans need insurance plans that translate into real affordable health care and solutions for the mess created by Obamacare, which cannot be found in more Republican nonsense and Obamacare Lite bills, like Graham-Cassidy. More spending and continued regulation only moves America one-step closer to a nationalized single-payer health care system, and if Republicans truly believe Obamacare has harmed America, as often asserted, they have a duty to revitalize the free market segment of health care insurance, through a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

No matter how many welfare dollars Congress pours into these fabricated markets or any amount of price fixing they set, the exchanges are unsustainable, and Graham-Cassidy offered a permanent drain on this already strained system and the U.S. treasury. It also added a $700 billion dollar deficit next year to America's $20 trillion dollar debt, without repealing a single Obamacare insurance regulation.

The only real solutions exist in a clean slate and a full repeal of Obamacare, ripping it up by the roots. At least a full repeal would save over a trillion dollars in spending over the next decade, instead of trying to save pennies on the dollar and leaving a poor health care system largely intact, through a bad bill like Graham-Cassidy.

Fortunately, Graham-Cassidy failed to be presented for a vote in the Senate, during the last week in September. It failed, after Susan Collins (R-ME), John McCain (R-AZ) and Rand Paul (R-KY) made it clear they would vote "no", keeping it from the 51-vote threshold in a reconciliation vote.

Only Senator Rand Paul held the moral high ground in his decision. On September 20th, Senator Paul told Real Clear Politics: "That [Graham-Cassidy] is not what I promised voters. I promised repeal [of Obamacare]. ... Block granting Obamacare doesn't make it go away."

Described as "a lousy process", the New York Times (September 26th, 2017) quoted Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska stating: "The U.S. Senate cannot get the text of a bill on Sunday night, then proceed to a vote just days later, with only one hearing -- and especially not on an issue that is intensely personal to all of us."

Senator John McCain complained Republicans should have worked with Democrats, to restructure America's $3 trillion per year health care system, which is simply asinine, in light of the fact, Obamacare is an entirely Democrat partisan piece of legislation, and it widely restructured a vital part of the national economy. These same Democrats destroyed dozens of governing norms through their lies, and they manipulated the Congressional Budget Score, in order to coerce every American's participation.

Perhaps, once the problems associated with Obamacare compound themselves or Obamacare actually collapses, the Democrats will make an honest effort to compromise on substantive changes, rather than seek more spending and regulatory controls on consumer choice. However, to date, these Commie Travelers have had millions of ideas on how to expand the welfare state and not a single one to save Americans from it.

Many Americans should already have the option of circumventing Obamacare through the Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). This act enables people to buy inexpensive insurance across state lines, by joining an insurance group or co-op through one's workplace; and, it proves the U.S. really doesn't need such an expansive program as Obamacare, which makes people pay for many services they don't want or need, like abortion.

Americans want freedom of choice on their health insurance plans and plans with less comprehensive coverage than Obamacare allows, which would reduce the cost of premiums. They want the expansion of health savings accounts and an end to mandate taxes and penalties. And if possible, most of us would truly appreciate Medicaid reform.

Currently, the Alexander-Murray stabilization package offers subsidies to insurance companies to reimburse them for reducing out-of-pocket expenses for low income people and more freedom for sates to restructure their insurance markets. While the Democrats see the subsidy payments as essential, most Republicans, especially in the Freedom Caucus, see the subsidies as bailouts for insurance companies that would prop up Obamacare. Sensible leaders will not readily burn more of the taxpayers' money in a system going south.

President Trump has the full authority to place a sunset deadline on the Obama administration's unconstitutional subsidy payments, which it created to keep Obamacare from imploding, and he should do so immediately. Let the Democrats howl "sabotage". There is not any political, policy or moral reason for the GOP to continue the payoffs.

The recent request for a twenty-three percent rate hike by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina [Blog Editor: BCBS asked for an updated a reduction to 14.1% 8/2/17] further illuminates the corruption within the current system. The company acknowledges that it would have asked for only an 8.8 percent increase, if President Trump had agreed to fund the federal subsidies through 2018, and so, the U.S. taxpayer gets raked over the coals and robbed blind by Obamacare once more.

Premium prices have doubled and quadrupled, and doctors are harder to find. Barack Obama promised Obamacare would boost the economy, but across America, small and large businesses report Obamacare impedes their ability to expand and hire.

One must wonder how much of the Republican Party's reluctance to fully repeal Obamacare lies with lobbyist efforts and donations to Republicans. Records show that between 2011 and 2016, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell received a total of $424,650 from Kindred Healthcare, Humana and Blackstone. Sen. Orrin Hatch received $133,500 from Blue Cross Blue Shield and Cancer Treatment Centers of America, while Sen. Lamar Alexander took $61,100 from Blue Cross Blue Shield and Community Health Systems in Franklin, Tennessee. And the list goes on.

After seven years of promises, where are the voices in the Senate offering passionate arguments for repeal? Where is the unified effort from the Republicans to speak for millions of Americans, who currently suffer under Obamacare's spiking premiums and decreasing choices? It has all seemingly vanished, since repeal became a possible reality.

America's well-being is more important than any political party's legacy and any insurance company's bottom line, and so, Republicans must not allow this abominable and failed Obamacare "law" to be prolonged and continue to hurt the American people in despicable fashion. The next Democratic administration will surely expand its reach and push towards a single-payer system, if it is not soon repealed, as suggested by Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT).

The Republicans and America really do not have any reason to save a failed Obamacare, and they certainly cannot afford to let it become more entrenched, while it cuts a liberty destroying path through our society. Until Republicans gather the backbone to counter the ACA or fully repeal it, the Republicans have broken faith with the American people.

By Justin O. Smith

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Edited by John R. Houk

All text enclosed by brackets and All source links are by the Editor.

© Justin O. Smith

Bury Obamacare

Justin Smith has some thoughts on Free Market insurance care as opposed to government single payer insurance.

JRH 3/27/17

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Bury Obamacare

By Justin O. Smith

Sent 3/26/2017 2:13 PM

Americans cannot gain affordable healthcare through the U.S. government and laws like the disastrous Obamacare or the Ryancare fiasco. They must look towards private sectors, free market based solutions and patient controlled healthcare plans that move Americans far away from an unsustainable, terribly inefficient and rapidly approaching government controlled single payer system. And Congressmen and Senators and any U.S. President, current or future, must remove all roadblocks to this course, if, as many profess, affordable healthcare for Americans is truly their goal.

America didn't have $2.6 trillion when Obamacare passed, and it doesn't have the $2.3 trillion that Ryancare demanded. It is immoral and bad leadership to put such a debt on the backs of American taxpayers, since most of the money goes to the bureaucracy, does not provide timely or even good healthcare and too often never makes it to the patients in need. Overspending, in such a manner, for a healthcare insurance program that does not deliver real care is not a solution.

Initially in 2010, Republicans promised to repeal Obamacare, but gradually their promise evolved to "repeal and replace". Forget replacing Obamacare. Congress must repeal Obamacare completely. Bury Obamacare.

With health insurance deductibles averaging approximately $7000, 6.5 million Americans decided to pay the penalty last year. Millions of other Americans pay premiums but don't go to the doctor due to high deductibles; and now millions more of Americans will soon be left without any insurance, because the Obamacare exchanges are imploding as insurance companies abandon them.

Ryancare [American Health Care Act] didn't offer much improvement over Obamacare, so it was fortunate that it failed to gain complete Republican support, which forced its withdrawal on March 24th, after five hours of discussion. The AHCA replaced the individual mandate and tax penalty with a thirty percent insurance premium surcharge for anyone buying insurance after a lapse in coverage. The AHCA simply placed Obamacare's unreasonable and odious Cadillac Tax on hold until 2025. It also offered another form of income redistribution called "tax credits". And in the end, Ryancare achieved no improvement in access to health care for Americans.

But government provided health insurance is not a right. Under Article I Section 8 of the Constitution, there isn't any federal power or duty to ensure "universal health care coverage".

However, as a start, let the free market fill the void and work for all. Advocate for the removal of cost prohibitive federal and state insurance regulatory mandates and all impediments to purchase health insurance across state lines. This will create competition, that will drive the cost of insurance and healthcare down and improve the quality of services, benefitting all and opening doors for any American who wants real Health Care.

Privately insured Americans must also end their practice of filing health insurance claims for every little sniffle they experience. When the majority of Americans use their health insurance to pay for only real medical necessities and emergencies, lowering the cost to companies, health insurance will become more affordable for all Americans.

And, since ninety percent of Americans spend less than $5000 on healthcare annually, people should comparative shop for health insurance and healthcare plans just like they would for a car. Self-paying patients are regularly charged 25 to 90 percent less than insured patients, so always ask any provider for the lowest possible price for someone un-insured.

Another option is Direct Primary Care (DPC). Under this model, a patient pays a fixed monthly amount, often as little as $50, and receives a high level of access to their regular doctor. They receive diagnostic testing and preventative and minor emergency procedures. The DPC model also arranges for other services that have been deeply discounted and pre-negotiated, like an MRI for $400. The DPC is quality health care for the average American that even provides specialists at a fraction of the cost of an insurance model.

Our government, however benevolent it may seem, is incapable of identifying who should qualify for free medical services, even if that was a proper government role. Obamacare's expansion of Medicaid reveals the veracity of this assertion.

According to the original 1965 law, Medicaid was designed to be a state administered program for those "unable to support ... their medical needs". But Obamacare now allows able-bodied poor and young Americans to utilize this program, even though it is currently very near bankrupt. The quality and availability of the healthcare received through its networks is also inferior.

Those Americans opposed to repealing Obamacare often ask, "What will happen to people with pre-existing illnesses?"

Anyone with pre-existing conditions could not be denied medical treatment under U.S. law prior to Obamacare, and many received care through "high risk pools" available in 35 states. If they cannot afford non-group health insurance, they will still not be denied medical attention after Obamacare is repealed, which leaves them to pay a medical bill or seek charity.

Americans will receive care one way or another; no one person should lose sleep over this. Americans turn themselves inside out to help each other. Hope Clinic [Murfreesboro, TN], and Vanderbilt's Children's Hospital and St. Jude's Children's Hospital bear testament to this, among many others.

When did Americans become so dependent on Uncle Sam? Can we no longer act independently for ourselves -- take care of ourselves?

Top of the line affordable health care is within the reach of all Americans, but if we are to take hold of it, we must quit paying any price insurance companies demand for premiums and doctors and hospitals demand for services, negotiating cheaper health care prices across the board. We must use our uninhibited creative energy to ensure timely access to quality care programs, as we also remove government obstacles to innovation from our health care system. And through free market initiatives healthcare costs will dramatically drop, efficiency within the system will increase and a new surplus of funds will provide care for our needy.

By Justin O. Smith

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Edited by John R. Houk

Source links are by the Editor.

© Justin O. Smith