Replacing Obamacare comes down to understanding who the ACA benefits and who the public at large — including a majority of Republicans — would agree were at a serious disadvantage under the previous highly-regulated system.
- People with costly preexisting conditions that make insurance cost prohibitive to the point of bankruptcy
- People who have exceeded their lifetime cap limit
The House GOP position should be:
“We are happy to draft legislation that will address the need of high-risk individuals now so they do not go bankrupt from their expenses and can gain the comfort and security of coverage. We also would suggest the following principles that would allow for the general population to see a drop in cost for insurance. These things are not currently a part of ACA, but are smart sensible reforms that make sense to the American people.
- Allow shopping for policies across state lines. Americans deserve the right to pursue the best affordable option that works for their family. Most other forms of insurance are sold across state lines. Our health insurance industry should move into the modern age.
- Ensure price transparency and equity for the uninsured. Any uninsured person’s price should be no higher than the lowest group negotiated rate for any service offered by a doctor or hospital.
- Tort reform to reduce cost of malpractice insurance which is costly in itself for doctors and causes over-utilization of tests and procedures to lower risk of lawsuits.
- Allow for portability of policies between employers. Cobra is very costly and is often the reason people discontinue insurance.
- Increase access to HSAs to allow for families with special needs children to be able to effectively save for expected costs.
- Recognition of the inequities that the ACA, as written, has caused for Medicaid. The best way to address this is to block grant Medicaid to the states and let them tailor a solution based on their state’s population needs.
While the the Republican Party is committed to reducing Americans’ healthcare costs in effective ways — despite our reasonable requests during the last debate with this administration to delay this law, we learned that we do not have the votes to currently affect this change. That makes it incumbent upon President Obama and Senator Reid to accept this framework so we can move forward and address this debacle. House Republicans stand ready to take a vote to replace Obamacare with sensible reforms outlined above that help the most vulnerable while preserving and improving health care access for all Americans. This can be done in a cost effective manner that does not require the federal government to take over 17% of the economy as they have proven quite incapable.”
Signed,
The Political Party that did not provide one vote for this ACA train wreck.