News item:
Now that the House has narrowly passed legislation overhauling the nation’s health-care system, the measure is headed to the Senate, where Republican leaders will wrestle with political and procedural challenges complicating chances for final passage. https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/if-house-passes-gop-health-care-bill-a-steeper-climb-awaits-in-the-senate/2017/05/04/26a901da-30bd-11e7-8674-437ddb6e813e_story.html?utm_term=.af30f126eaac
SEVEN STEPS TO SANITY
ONE
Explain with detail – stats and facts - why Obamacare is a failure and is unsustainable.
Remind voters
It passed without any Republican votes & with no indication any Democrat read it. Nancy Pelosi famously said: We have to pass it to find out what is in it . http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2010/03/nancy-pelosi-we-have-to-pass-our-bill-so-that-you-can-find-out-what-is-in-it/]
It passed because of Obama’s lies. "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan." http://www.politifact.com/obama-like-health-care-keep/
...plan includes services that he does not need, such as maternity care, pediatric dental care, mental-health coverage, and substance-abuse treatment.
Insurance companies are refusing to participate.
The primary reason insurers are leaving Obamacare exchanges is cost. ACA provisions—notably the individual mandate, the requirement insurers must cover pre-existing conditions, and coverage requirements—are leading to higher enrollment rates for more expensive, traditionally uninsured Americans without increasing the pool of younger, healthier health insurance consumers, many of whom are finding Obamacare too expensive. [Emphasis added.] https://townhall.com/columnists/justinhaskins/2016/04/20/draft-n2151481
http://www.businessinsider.com/aetna-virginia-medica-iowa-obamacare-repeal-ahca-2017-5 http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/02/15/major-health-insurance-company-ceo-says-obamacare-is-in-a-death-spiral/
It defies common sense.
It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it. Thomas Sowell https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomassowe393325.html
TWO
Get the Federal Government out of the health care insurance business. This will eliminate the unfairness in treatment between taxpayers whose employers supply healthcare insurance and taxpayers who are left to obtain it on their own.
THREE
Allow competition among healthcare insurers across state lines. Competition will stimulate better rates.
FOUR
Tax deductions. Allow dollar for dollar tax deductions for health insurance premiums. This will incentivize the young to obtain insurance. Allow dollar for dollar tax deductions for for all medications, prescription and non prescription.This provides an incentive for everyone to take responsibility for one's health.
FIVE
Provide tort reform as in Texas.
SIX
Turn the details of repeal/reform over to Rand Paul, a doctor with a predilection for market solutions. There are only 2 other medical doctors in the Senate and both are Republicans, John Barrasso and Bill Cassidy.
SEVEN
Employ the nuclear option to remove the 60 vote requirement for action on legislation.
Joe Biden made the point years ago that there should not be a super majority for legislative matters.
The Constitution specifies a super-majority for only a limited list of Senate actions. [E.g., ratification of treaties, overriding Presidential vetoes, approving constitutional amendments.] Both Alexander Hamilton and James Madison indicated in the Federalist Papers a clear belief in majority rule, with Hamilton stating that 'the fundamental maxim of republican government . . . requires that the sense of the majority should prevail.' [Emphasis added.] http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/jan/22/joe-biden/biden-says-every-senate-decision-now-requires-60-v/
CONCLUSION
These days, SANITY is not an easy sell. For most politicians, the primary goal is to get re-elected
and the easiest way to do that is to give "freebies" to the voters, that is, benefits that are paid for by the taxpayers; in short, legalized bribery. Such benefits are contained in Obamacare.
The economist, Walter Williams, spelled it out: People who pay little or no income taxes become natural constituents for big-spending politicians. After all, if you pay no income taxes, what do you care if income taxes are raised? Also, you won't be enthusiastic about tax cuts; you'll see them as a threat to your handouts.
The Democrats have turned the aphorism He, who robs Peter to pay Paul, can always count on Paul's support into an effective political strategy. The Democrats are unlikely to cooperate in any Republican sponsored health care plan. Sadly, that is true of a number of Republicans as well, RINOs, [Republicans In Name Only], who actually favor big government as the vehicle to keep them in power.
I believe the majority of Americans are better than credited by the politicians. I believe they will respond to appeals as they did to JFK:
Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.
We have a persuasive President who will sit down with the RINOs as he did with House members and bring them to agreement and then will take the message to the people.
These SEVEN STEPS can bring cost effective coherence to health care while promoting individual responsibility.
Millions of individuals making their own decisions in the marketplace will always allocate resources better than any centralized government planning process. Ronald Reagan