The Right Response to the Affordable Care Act

If you drive anywhere in Oregon, you’re likely to see massive billboards touting “Long Live Oregonians”, using cute cartoon scenes.

The trouble is that while the ads are attractive, all the clever marketing in the world can’t mask a bad product, which is what we’re seeing at the Federal level. Obamacare is an unmitigated disaster, one that even Democrats are running from, as more and more individuals lose their health insurance and rates continue to skyrocket. As liberals flounder, they see what they think is an escape and they grasp on to it – the accusatory question to conservatives: “what would you do to fix healthcare?”

In response, many establishment politicians are apologizing to America. Both Democrats and Republicans are expressing dismay at the dismal outcomes of a poorly-written policy and badly-executed technology. Still others are trying to convince us that they are truly outraged by the price increases, or that they “understand the pain” of Americans who are experiencing rising medical costs and lost coverage.

Health care is a serious issue in American life. Government intervention only distorts the healthy dynamic between patients and their doctors, but apologies and small reforms are not what is needed.

For example, the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare):

• puts unnecessary restrictions on an individual’s ability to choose their own doctor, treatment and plan
• places unwarranted taxes on common medical devices
• strangles and inhibits medical industry innovation
• burdens insurance policies with unneeded coverage requirements
• has created yet another public/private behemoth of special interests, lobbyists and bureaucracy

Who will pay the price for this unnecessary quagmire? The American consumer.  When men are paying for mandatory maternity coverage, and young people are being punished for the mere fact that they are young and healthy, we have a serious problem on our hands.

We cannot continue this foolishness of universal health care. We need a full repeal of Obamacare, and we need to address the high costs of insurance and health care in the free market. If the government was in the technology business, we’d still be using computers the size of a basement – thankfully, the free market now creates powerful computers that we can all carry in our coat pockets at an affordable price. Let’s let the American health care industry go the way of the iPhone – to do so, government must get out of the way.

For more information on this issue, please check out the following links:

http://blog.heritage.org/category/obamacare/

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303309504579182061106839366

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/healthcare-reform-for-your-facebook-friends

http://heritageaction.com/2013/10/the-harsh-realities-of-obamacare/