What to replace Obamacare with

Don Surber's Blog ^ | November 17, 2014 | Don Surber

[2ndDivisionVet]

Nothing.

The government already has made a mess of it with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, which fixed a minor problem by turning the health insurance industry upside down. I would call it Rube Goldbergian, but his intention was to mock overly complicated inventions to perform minor chores.

Now Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner has an opposite opinion: "Obamacare repeal is more likely, and now GOP needs an alternative."

His argument is that the court will smite the Obamacare beast and we must do something immediately, immediately, immediately.

Passing a “fix” would require Republicans to pass legislation that would boost spending by hundreds of billions of dollars — the cost of the subsidies — without any offsetting spending cuts. Republicans would be cleaning up a mess created by the terrible drafting decisions made by Democrats who authored the law and the illegal move by the administration to deliver benefits to people who were not entitled to them under the law as written.

That is why conservatives should push Republicans to have an alternative plan ready to pass should the Supreme Court strike down the federal subsidies — a decision that should come by late June.

If Republicans do not have an alternative to present when confronted by the political backlash, they will most assuredly buckle. Putting Republican leaders on record supporting one of the key aspects of Obamacare would almost certainly extinguish any glimmer of hope for repeal.

Poppycock.

Philip Klein bases this need to this this on tweets from Guy Benson of Townhall: "Benson’s fear is that if the Supreme Court rules against the Obama administration, whatever the merits of the decision, liberal media would portray it as a right-wing court ripping health insurance away from millions over a silly typo out of animosity for the poor. And if Republicans didn’t pass a simple fix to change the wording, they’d be accused of mass murder."

So what?

Who cares what the press thinks about Republicans? They hate us. Get over it. The American news media does not matter.

What does matter is that the American people hate Obamacare. They are not stupid and they sense that Democrats lied through their false teeth to pass this monstrosity. The latest Gallup poll shows that by a 19% margin America hates Obamacare. If Obamacare were a politician, it would be Wendy Davis. Who the hell wants to fix Wendy Davis? Texas dumped her. Good. Do the same with Obamacare and win the next presidential election by 19 points.

The argument that 47 million people would be without health insurance is laughable. We added 8 million enrollees (who knows how many actually pay for them) at a terrific cost of $1 trillion over the next decade (the original Congressional Budget Office estimate before President Obama and Jonathan Gruber hid the real costs with a pack of lies).

Dump it.

Hand health insurance regulation to the states. Let them figure it out.

[Lizavetta]

Our betters in government have tinkered so much with health insurance that people like me are completely priced out of the market.

They have refused to pass tort reform, refused to let you buy out of state, refused to keep illegals from using hospitals without paying, etc. etc.

I am a self-employed person and cannot pay $600 a month or more for insurance and I make too much to qualify for Medi-Cal. There is no other option for me, period.

And no one will convince me that they didn't plan it to be that way, either.

[Hoodat]

Replace it with a free open market. And make all medical expenses (including insurance premiums) deductible.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Undo the Medicare cuts.

[OneLoyalAmerican]

Again, government IS the problem.

First, we already have a law from 1890, just enforce the Sherman Act. Why should insurance companies enjoy exemption from monopoly activity? Typically an insurance co-payment equates with the actual cost of provided procedure.

Second, we already have a law from 1914, just enforce the Clayton Act. Why should health care providers enjoy exemption from anti-competitive practices, such as posted prices? We ought to know how much two stiches in a non-life threatening situation might cost before we give consent for services.

Next, repeal the Volmstead Act. All medications ought to become over the counter medications instead of insurance prescription candy. A senior citizen ought not need a prescription to maintain their monthly dose of heart medications.

Then, tort reform. Ambulance chasers ought to bear personal responsibility for the costs associated with advancing frivolous lawsuits. Loser lawyer personally pays defendants damages, from attorney’s own pocket, otherwise attorney forfeits license to practice.

[okie01]

Insurance companies want monopolies. That’s how they can make the most money.

That's how an individual company can make the most money. But not how an industry can make the most money.

I'd still want to hear how the industry would organize the market (with any proposal resulting in a monopoly instantly discarded). They will know a helluva lot more about what would work than any academic or bureaucrat would.