Does the health care system need reform? Absolutely. Is more government control the answer? Absolutely not. The solutions can be found – as they are in so many other parts of our economy — in more personal control and free market competition, less government intervention, and some common-sense reforms. This means private purchase and ownership of policies (and the portability that goes with it), interstate competition, an end to the anti-trust exemption for insurance companies, and a crackdown on frivolous malpractice lawsuits.
Mr. Spratt is quick to point out that government already controls 45% of health care. Now maybe we see what the source of the problem is.
Just a few months after Obamacare was shepherded through the House by John Spratt and signed into law by the president, can we see its effects? Absolutely.
We see health care insurance premiums skyrocketing. We see that as many as 69% of businesses will have to change their plans – forcing millions of individuals to change doctors and plans whether they were happy or not. We see onerous regulations and tax increases on small businesses. We see severe cuts to seniors’ medicare plans. And we see a rapid expansion of Medicaid that will cost South Carolina more than $900 million over the next ten years. $900 million that we don’t have.
Does this look like it will drive health care costs down??
We need to repeal Obamacare and start again. If a repeal effort is vetoed by the president, we should focus on defunding the bill, and also on preventing the estimated 60,000 pages of regulations related to it from being passed. We should then offer our own alternatives that put people in charge of their own health care, not the government.