Broken Promise: How to Fix the un-Affordable Care Act

Last week, the Obama Administration reported that healthcare premiums for the benchmark plan under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) will increase by 25-percent next year. That’s three times higher than last year. And about one-in-five exchange customers will have access to only one insurer, reducing their choice and forcing families into precarious financial situations. The Affordable Care Act has decreased insurer competition and limited consumer choice.

Remember, President Obama claimed “this law means more choice, more competition, lower costs for millions of Americans.”

This broken promise comes as no surprise to the American public.

An August 2016 Rasmussen Reports survey found that 59 percent of likely American voters thought healthcare cost would go up under the new law. Only 9 percent expected costs to decrease—that’s the lowest finding since the law was passed in March 2010. As Americans learn more about the law, their expectations continue to decline.

Six years ago, we were warned by experts that the imbalance between sick people and healthy people covered under Obamacare would cause the program to quickly become insolvent. Last month, I wrote about large insurance companies pulling out of the Obamacare exchanges. The system under Obamacare began to bankrupt these companies, so they pulled out of the public marketplace.

Remember, President Obama stated “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits—either now or in the future.”

Yet, House Democrats want to double down on this system and move to a public-option with the intention of eventually moving to a Medicare-for-All single-payer system. In order to make Obamacare work, they want to increase and expand subsidies. They want to pour tax money into a failed government-attempt to take over healthcare. This is their only option—their only way forward to save a program that was structurally flawed from the very beginning.

Pumping tax money into an unsustainable system is not the way. House Republicans have a better way. Speaker Ryan’s plan maintains the protections provided under the Affordable Care Act. Republicans are prepared to replace Obamacare with real, patient-centered solutions that protect families and their budgets.  Our plan also makes it easier to take insurance from job to job. And for those without access to employer coverage, Medicare, or Medicaid, we offer a refundable tax credit to help buy health insurance in the individual market. The credit would be age-adjusted, so it grows as you get older.

We will expand health savings accounts so you can choose the care that’s best for you and your budget. By allowing health insurance to be sold across state lines, similar to auto insurance, we take a step towards making insurance more competitive and more broadly available.

We will give small businesses more leverage to negotiate better rates. Our plan allows for small businesses and individuals to band together through new pooling mechanisms to increasing purchasing power to attain lower rates. We want to shape a healthcare system that allows employers to reward employees for making healthy choices—that why we support wellness programs.

Speaker Ryan’s plan maintains the ACA protections, including protections for families with young people, by allowing unemployed young people to remain on their parent’s plan up to the age of 26.

The Affordable Care Act also protects patients with pre-existing conditions so that regardless of their health status they can never be denied coverage. It also offers a set of preventative services through network providers for patients, especially for women and children. Among preventative services are alcohol and drug assessments for adolescents, breast and cervical cancer screenings and treatment for women, and immunizations for adults.

While the protections and services from the Affordable Care Act have benefited many in our district, the underlying structure of the ACA faces severe sustainability problems. The premise behind the ACA assumed younger, healthier people would pay into the system to help older, sicker people. This thinking led many to wrongly state that Obamacare would not cost additional money. The law failed to take into account the behavior of young people, who opted out of Obamacare.  As a result, the risk pool has more sick people requiring health service than healthy people to sustain the cost.

There is a better plan on the table that will help lower premiums, while putting you and your doctor at the center of care. In a nation that’s as large and diverse as ours, it does not make sense for a federal bureaucracy to dictate our healthcare options. If you like your healthcare plan, you should be able to keep your healthcare plan, period.