Issues | Health Care

The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) overpromises, overspends and underperforms — all at the expense of hardworking taxpayers. It does little to protect patients and is unlikely to make care more affordable.

We must repeal Obamacare for five basic reasons:

1.     It is failing to keep its promises – we were told it would expand coverage and reduce premiums, yet coverage is not expanding and health care premiums continue to rise at a rate much higher than inflation.
 

2.     Its mandates are having a chilling impact on job creation - Small businesses refrain from exceeding 50 employees because they will be subject to harsher requirements and businesses legitimately fear anticipated health care cost increases when the law is fully implemented next year.
 

3.     The law will have a devastating impact on Medicare and Medicaid – including a $500 billion reduction in funding for Medicare. Physician groups have warned these cuts will force many to stop seeing Medicare patients. Additionally, because TRICARE reimbursement rates are directly tied to Medicare, health care for military personnel will be impacted as well.
 

4.     The Affordable Care Act is poised to explode our nation’s deficit: The revenues do not match the expenses. We will be forced to borrow if the law is not repealed.
 

5.     The law establishes the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which is charged with determining what services will and will not be paid for. There is no requirement for the board to hold public meetings or hearings or consider public input. This means that many personal health care decisions that we believe are better left to be decided between a doctor and his or her patient, will be left to the whims of this unelected, bureaucratic board that has a one size fits all mentality operating out of the cubicles and conference rooms of Washington, DC.

What can we do? 
Legislatively, we need to continue to carry forward the good patient-centered insurance reforms in the law. Requiring coverage for pre-existing conditions, allowing children up to age 26 to be carried on a parent’s policy, and covering preventive health care services such as mammograms for women are examples of good reforms.

However, we must deal with the real problem in this area, the never ending overall rising cost of services in American health care. Thus, this law ultimately jeopardizes the very underpinnings of the leading health care system in the world by treating a few insurance symptoms, but ignoring the true cause of the underlying disease - ever increasing health care costs with no real accountable plan to rein those costs under control.