All the News That's Fit to be Tied

I have an axe to grind, but unlike the New York Times, I freely admit it.

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Repeal And Replace

To fully appreciate this column you should read the one that precedes it, which is located below. The subject is ObamaCare and the hysteria being created to protect it from reform. The Democrats in Congress, their allies in the press and hundreds of progressive interest groups are trying to paint the Republicans into in-action to preserve what is probably the worst development in medical care since they used leeches to cure infections. "If you repeal ObamaCare, what are you going to replace it with," is the challenge posed by Democrats. In fact, replacing ObmaCare is really a false choice because ObamaCare is primarily regulations written by Health and Human Services (HHS). The Affordable Care Act gives HHS the authority to write the regulations that control how ObamaCare works. And, they have written some 30,000 pages of regulations creating an impossible web for insurance companies, doctors, hospitals and patients to understand. Innumerable mandates, complex regulations and record keeping and murky funding streams are all designed to collapse the system and bring about a single-payer, government run system. The two primary examples of government healthcare you should consider are the Veterans Administration Hospital system and Medicaid. In the column below I explain why most people with ObamaCare will not be affected by its repeal so I don't want to go over it again. What I want to stress is that ObamaCare can be undone by the new Secretary of HHS. Rescinding regulations that govern the content of healthcare plans will free insurance companies to offer stylized plans which will cost less and reduce interference between doctor, patient and insurer. Since 75-percent of ObamaCare users are on Medicare and  Medicaid they will not be affected by repeal or deregulation of the program. The remaining 25 percent will get a better policy at a better price. All of this can be done without repeal, except for the individual mandate, which must be repealed by the Congress. The rest can be done by HHS. Get to work, Gentlemen and Ladies; It's in your hands.