By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--November 29, 2016
American Politics, News | CFP Comments | Reader Friendly | Subscribe | Email Us
Last week, Price said whatever Republicans do to replace Obama’s health care law will bear a “significant resemblance” to a 2015 measure that was vetoed by the president. That bill would have gutted some of the health care law’s main features: Medicaid expansion, subsidies to help middle-class Americans buy private policies, the tax penalties for individuals who refused to get coverage and several taxes to support coverage expansion. The bill would have delayed implementation for two years. Price insisted that Republicans can keep the protections for those with existing medical conditions without mandating that all individuals carry coverage or pay a penalty to support an expanded insurance pool. Price said Republicans want to address “the real cost drivers” of health care price spikes, which he said were not necessarily sicker patients, but a heavy regulatory burden, taxes and lawsuits against medical professionals.Not long ago, the boss wrote about House Resolution 2300, a Price-sponsored piece of legislation get rid of the ObamaCare trainwreck:
Even during the ObamaCare debate, there were any number of Republican proposals. The most significant one at the moment was recently introduced in the House of Representatives by U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Georgia), a doctor who is the lead sponsor of HR 2300. He calls it Empowering Patients First.
The basics of the bill are these:Trump could not have made a better choice for HHS than Price. He will clearly be the administration's point man with Congress on the implementation of the new law that returns our health care system to sanity. Price understands the issues not only from a physician's perspective but from the economic perspective of patients as well. I've liked a lot of Trump's appointments so far, but none as much as this one. This gives me tremendous confidence that we're not just going to get rid of ObamaCare. We're going to get something that really works in its place. It's a good day.There is a lot I like about this bill and a few things I would do differently. But the point here is not necessarily to argue every minute detail of Rep. Price’s bill. The point is that a Republican member of Congress – who happens to be a physician, by the way – has introduced legislation that would replace ObamaCare with something vastly superior to the train wreck we’re facing right now.
- It extends tax deductions for health insurance to those who buy as individuals, thus eliminating the perverse incentive that favored employer-purchased insurance.
- It gives patients true portability by making them the owners of their insurance – not their employers.
- It gives doctors the real power to make treatment decisions, not insurance companies or the government.
- It reforms medical liability laws and thus saves money by reducing the practice of defensive medicine.
Support Canada Free Press
View Comments
Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain
Follow all of Dan’s work, including his series of Christian spiritual warfare novels, by liking his page on Facebook.