Issue Position: Improving Health Care

Issue Position

Improving Health Care
End Obamacare and Replace with Free Market Solution to Improve Health Care

ACTION ITEMS:

Promote competition among insurance companies to lower monthly premiums
Allow purchase of health insurance across state lines
Help those who can't afford coverage with subsidies
End Obamacare exemption for Congress

It's a bad idea for the federal government to take over our free market health care industry.

Although promised otherwise, millions of frightened Americans are seeing their health insurance plans cancelled because they do not include unwanted and expensive coverage mandated by the new one-size-fits-all health care law.

Why should a 65-year-old male be required to pay for pediatric and maternity coverage?

Millions of Americans are also losing their doctors and hospitals of choice because they don't fit into the Obamacare-mandated health care systems. Others are suffering dramatic increases in their monthly insurance premiums, another broken promise from Washington.

Senior citizens are worried about the $700 billion cut from Medicare to help pay for Obamacare.

All Americans are paying higher taxes because of this big government takeover of our health care. Many businesses are discouraged from hiring full-time employees and are cutting weekly work hours to below 30 to avoid the law's expensive mandates. Americans don't trust handing over their personal health and financial information to a new government bureaucracy enforced by the Internal Revenue Service.

One alternative to Obamacare is to allow families to shop across state lines to buy the health insurance that fits our needs at a price we can afford, just like purchasing automobile insurance. Small businesses should also be allowed to band together to buy coverage. Our purchasing power would incentivize insurance companies to offer plans with varying coverage, co-pays, deductibles, and lower monthly premiums.

The cost of this private insurance could be paid by expanding tax-free health savings accounts using federal tax credits. Instead of sending Uncle Sam, say, $15,000 per year in taxes, a family could use that money to buy health insurance. Any amount left over would remain in the health savings account to buy insurance the next year. This idea is similar to tax-free Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) used by millions of Americans to supplement their retirement security.

Repealing the medical equipment tax under Obamacare would help ensure continued investment in new life-saving technology. Reforming medical malpractice laws could lower the cost of services charged by doctors and hospitals, thereby reducing the cost of health insurance.

It's important that health insurance plans are portable and cover pre-existing medical conditions so workers are not tied to a specific job or employer in order to retain the insurance. We could make sure the coverage is explained in plain English so that consumers truly understand what they're buying.

For those who cannot afford health insurance, high-risk pools and federal subsidies could assure coverage.

It's a worthy goal for every American to have health insurance. However, it doesn't make sense to ruin the best private health care system in the world while trying to get there.

In 2011, the Republican majority in the Maine legislature passed a new health insurance law encouraging competition among insurance companies. Since then, monthly premium increases for individual policies have slowed dramatically as shown on the graph below. Today, many individuals and small businesses are seeing decreases in their monthly bills because of the new law. This type of free market strategy is a better way to solve our nation's health insurance problem than a federal government take-over of the entire health care industry.

If Obamacare does survive with its current costs and mandates, U.S. Senators and Congressmen and their staffs should live under the same rules they created for the rest of us. They should discard their Cadillac plans and exemption from the 3,700 pages of Obamacare costs and restrictions that We The People struggle under.

In Congress, I'll fight the special interests and lobbyists to end the expensive, intrusive, and unfair government take-over of our health care. I'll work tirelessly for a free market solution to help our 2nd District families buy affordable health insurance that fits their needs while providing sensible coverage for the most vulnerable fellow Americans.

Source