Obamacare was the wrong prescription for our health care problems and I believe it should be repealed and replaced with a plan based on individual liberty and personal freedom. The Obamacare law has: undermined individual liberty and choice, added tens of billions of dollars to the national debt, driven the cost of medical insurance out of reach for millions of Americans, cut Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars, and imposed costly mandates on America’s job creators. It failed to meet its promises of affordable coverage for all Americans and tens of millions of American remain uninsured. Another side effect is that too many Americans are still left with part time jobs rather than the full-time jobs that they want.
“Medicare for All” proposals – embraced by all 2020 Democrat presidential candidates and the New Green Deal – is Obamacare on steroids. Medicare for All puts Washington politicians and government bureaucrats in charge of health care decisions because it completely bans private health insurance. That flies in the face of American Constitutional principles of freedom.
Let’s be clear here. We absolutely need to fix the short-comings in our health care system and as we work to do this there are several principles we must follow: We must:
- Guarantee that those with pre-existing medical conditions do not lose their health insurance or their access to affordable coverage;
- Ensure that health insurers cannot drop people from coverage when they get sick; and
- Allow those under age 26 to continue on their family plan until they have access to an affordable health plan of their own as was the law in Florida well before Obamacare.
I’ve successfully gone after insurance companies when they charge Florida residents for health insurance and then refuse to pay medical bills or deny patients live-saving treatments. That’s fraud and it must be prosecuted.
We need to enact policies that drive down costs, make quality health insurance more affordable for all Americans and give Americans access to more choices. Some of the ideas that have been proposed and that should be given consideration include:
- Allow purchase of health insurance across state lines which would enhance competition,
- Keep drug makers from playing games and abusing the regulatory process to keep lower cost drugs off the market,
- Let Americans choose a plan that fits their needs and the needs of their family rather that a plan that politicians and government bureaucrats tell them they must have – that way they won’t have to pay for things they don’t want or need,
- Expand access to tax-free Health Savings Accounts so that individuals can make informed health care decisions rather than handing money over to an insurance company to make those choices for them,
- Make the cost of medical care more transparent so that health care consumers can compare costs and make informed decisions – like they do for everything else they spend their money on,
- Protecting Americans from “surprise” medical bills, and
- Restore high-risk pools that were eliminated under Obamacare to ensure coverage for high cost patients while lowering premiums for other Americans.