Weekly Column: The Obamacare Repeal Bill That Will Make it to the President's Desk

Statement

With Obamacare, Americans were sold a false bill of goods that came with a price tag in the trillions. It has driven up health care costs, busted our budget, stifled job growth and raised taxes on hardworking Arkansans.

Obamacare has created more problems than it solves.

The skyrocketing premiums, rising out-of-pocket health care costs and shrinking paychecks all contribute to the underlying anxiety that is hanging over the heads of the American people.

Add to that a massive new bureaucracy and stark reduction in choices, and you get a law that is simply unsalvageable.

Obamacare has let the American people down. To see it any other way takes more than rose-colored glasses. It takes blinders.

Premiums are going up, deductibles are rising and the tax burden for hardworking Americans--and the small business owners that create many of their jobs--has significantly increased.

To that last point specifically, Obamacare hits American households with more than $1 trillion in new taxes over the next ten years. It will cost taxpayers more than $116 billion a year according to the Congressional Budget Office. On average, every American household can expect more than $20,000 in new taxes over the next ten years.

The Senate took a crucial step forward in beginning to lift the burdens and higher costs this law has placed on all Americans. The legislation we passed eliminates more than $1 trillion in tax increases placed on the American people, while saving more than $500 billion in spending. Most importantly, this bill begins to build a bridge from the president's broken promises to a better health care system for hardworking families across the country.

That better system is rooted in flexibility, choice, portability and fairness. We must remove bureaucracy from the equation, put patients in control and force insurance companies to compete for their business.

That is the way to create a sustainable health care system. Sustainable being the the key word as the wheels are already falling off of Obamacare.

Bloomberg Business reports that UnitedHealth may quit selling coverage in Obamacare's individual markets in 2017. Losses from the plans this year and next will total more than half a billion dollars.

This is significant. UnitedHealth is the largest U.S. insurer when you measure by enrollment numbers. The company is experienced in the insurance industry and its technical unit stepped in to help save the program after the disastrous launch of Healthcare.gov. Competitors Anthem and Aetna, among others, have also suffered losses in the marketplaces.

The Wall Street Journal said insurers cite Obamacare's foundation as the root problem. The rules that require insurers "to sell to everybody, regardless of their medical history, and at equal prices" has lead to plans carrying "more sick people and fewer healthy people." Obamacare's survival depends on enrollment trends that are the exact opposite of this.

So what happens when Obamacare implodes because it is not doing as well as the Administration pretends it is?

We can't wait for that to happen.

Repeal is the first step. This bill will make the President's desk and it accomplishes that goal. He will likely veto it, but it sends a clear message that the American people want to replace this program with market-based solutions that will bring the changes that Obamacare, and all it's broken promises, simply cannot deliver.

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