Where to start in repealing Obamacare

On March 23, 2010, President Obama forever altered the American health care system by signing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law. Its advocates promised that the measure would reinvent American health care and reinvigorate the American economy.

As House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., put it, “This bill is not only about the health security of America, it’s about jobs. In its life, it will create 4 million jobs, 400,000 jobs almost immediately.”

Boy, were they wrong. It’s becoming more apparent with each passing day that Obamacare will devastate American health care as well as the health of our citizens — and further damage our country’s fragile finances.

The PPACA is expected to cost in excess of $2.5 trillion over the decade beginning in 2014 because of the expansion of Medicaid, federal tax subsidies, the hiring of 16,000 new IRS agents, and the bans on lifetime and annual coverage caps and on discrimination based on pre-existing conditions.

Implementing the law has been extremely challenging. It’s tough to completely remake our health care system overnight. After all, it already accounts for one-sixth of the American economy, about $2.5 trillion — and in July 2011 authors from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reported in the journal Health Affairs that by 2020, national health care spending will rise to $4.6 trillion, one-fifth of the American economy.

Certain provisions of the president’s reform plan kicked in immediately. But many of Obamacare’s main provisions and cost drivers do not take effect until 2014. As of mid-July 2011, there are more than 9,000 pages of rules and Federal Register notices related to Obamacare.

Consequently, there is still time to reverse course. Our congressional leaders can repeal Obamacare and replace it with market-based reforms that actually expand access to coverage, provide quality care, and reduce the cost of health care.

This book provides a blueprint and a road map for accomplishing that mission. It examines 10 key components of Obamacare and shows why each one doesn’t work, how to eliminate it, and what reform to put in its place. …

Since the day the president signed the Affordable Care Act into law, a clear majority of American voters — reaching as high as 63 percent — has favored its repeal.

Prior to Obamacare’s passage, Pelosi famously stated that Congress would “have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” The American people have found out what is actually in the law — and they’re not pleased.

The clock is ticking: Our health care system — and our nation’s fragile economy — are under imminent threat from the president’s poorly conceived attempt at reform.

Let’s now see how our leaders can go about repealing and replacing Obamacare with a law that actually does provide “affordable, accessible, quality care” for all Americans.

The problem: Obama sold his health care law to the American public as an effective way to bend the health care cost curve down and eliminate the ranks of the uninsured.

It won’t achieve either goal: Since the law passed, evidence has poured in proving that the PPACA is actually accelerating the growth in the cost of medical care, and that it will not solve the problem of uninsured Americans.

The solution: Stop the madness, repeal the legislation, and replace it with a plan that delivers affordable, accessible, quality care for all. Start by implementing reforms that increase both patient autonomy and competition among insurers and providers.

Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.

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