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What to replace Obamacare with
Don Surber's Blog ^ | November 17, 2014 | Don Surber

Posted on 11/17/2014 5:50:24 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Nothing.

The government already has made a mess of it with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, which fixed a minor problem by turning the health insurance industry upside down. I would call it Rube Goldbergian, but his intention was to mock overly complicated inventions to perform minor chores.

Now Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner has an opposite opinion: "Obamacare repeal is more likely, and now GOP needs an alternative."

His argument is that the court will smite the Obamacare beast and we must do something immediately, immediately, immediately.

Passing a “fix” would require Republicans to pass legislation that would boost spending by hundreds of billions of dollars — the cost of the subsidies — without any offsetting spending cuts. Republicans would be cleaning up a mess created by the terrible drafting decisions made by Democrats who authored the law and the illegal move by the administration to deliver benefits to people who were not entitled to them under the law as written.

That is why conservatives should push Republicans to have an alternative plan ready to pass should the Supreme Court strike down the federal subsidies — a decision that should come by late June.

If Republicans do not have an alternative to present when confronted by the political backlash, they will most assuredly buckle. Putting Republican leaders on record supporting one of the key aspects of Obamacare would almost certainly extinguish any glimmer of hope for repeal.

Poppycock.

Philip Klein bases this need to this this on tweets from Guy Benson of Townhall: "Benson’s fear is that if the Supreme Court rules against the Obama administration, whatever the merits of the decision, liberal media would portray it as a right-wing court ripping health insurance away from millions over a silly typo out of animosity for the poor. And if Republicans didn’t pass a simple fix to change the wording, they’d be accused of mass murder."

So what?

Who cares what the press thinks about Republicans? They hate us. Get over it. The American news media does not matter.

What does matter is that the American people hate Obamacare. They are not stupid and they sense that Democrats lied through their false teeth to pass this monstrosity. The latest Gallup poll shows that by a 19% margin America hates Obamacare. If Obamacare were a politician, it would be Wendy Davis. Who the hell wants to fix Wendy Davis? Texas dumped her. Good. Do the same with Obamacare and win the next presidential election by 19 points.

The argument that 47 million people would be without health insurance is laughable. We added 8 million enrollees (who knows how many actually pay for them) at a terrific cost of $1 trillion over the next decade (the original Congressional Budget Office estimate before President Obama and Jonathan Gruber hid the real costs with a pack of lies).

Dump it.

Hand health insurance regulation to the states. Let them figure it out.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Conspiracy; Government; Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: aca; gop; gruber; interstatecommerce; obama; obamacare; wod
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To: bigbob

and no mandates, no fines and no death panels


21 posted on 11/17/2014 6:14:36 PM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I love this stuff.
What about the government contractor bureaucrat industry?
These are the jobs of the future, man!
People gotta be payed off...I mean payed, where's that thread about the Uber guy?
Did you see that one? (sarcasm)
Repeal it, get the government and the lawyers out of it, and let the market fix it.
22 posted on 11/17/2014 6:14:40 PM PST by right way right (America has embraced the suck of Freedumb.)
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To: reasonisfaith

But... but...


23 posted on 11/17/2014 6:15:36 PM PST by Ray76 (We must destroy the Uniparty or be destroyed by them.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Adam Smith’s invisible hand will undo the Gordian knot.


24 posted on 11/17/2014 6:27:05 PM PST by spokeshave (He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people,)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I believe I'd start by asking the insurers how they'd design the market.

Obviously, insurers would prefer a system wherein they can make the most money

And, by definition, the system wherein they'd make the most money would be the system that would attract the most customers.

And wasn't that the point...???

25 posted on 11/17/2014 6:30:04 PM PST by okie01 (THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Ignorance on Parade)
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To: okie01

They liked the idea of forcing people to buy health insurance.

Which was stupid.


26 posted on 11/17/2014 6:34:09 PM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I would like to see a car insurance/phone contract-type solution for health care. First, let people buy insurance a la carte and across state lines. Second, let people form their own healthcare coaltions with family and friends and compete for lower rates and share the cost of the premium. That’s my simplistic take on the whole thing.


27 posted on 11/17/2014 6:38:44 PM PST by rabidralph
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I strongly disagree that there was a minor problem before.

It was a similar problem only at the State level with State legislatures and insurance board limiting competition. Now the Federal government is doing the same thing ... so nothing has changed in that regard.

All that has changed is that now we are forced by law to purchase from insurance monopolies ... but the monopolies were there before and there now.

What needs to be done it to get rid of the monopolies.


28 posted on 11/17/2014 6:40:20 PM PST by Lorianne (fed pork, bailouts, gone taxmoney)
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To: US_MilitaryRules
Cash only.

Are you philosophically opposed to insurance of all types or just on medical issues?

29 posted on 11/17/2014 6:40:25 PM PST by nascarnation (Impeach, Convict, Deport)
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To: okie01

Insurance companies want monopolies. That’s how they can make the most money.


30 posted on 11/17/2014 6:42:40 PM PST by Lorianne (fed pork, bailouts, gone taxmoney)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Just say NO to Federal Government Health Programs. Return the system to the day before obamacare was signed into law. This may take several years as obama and obamacare have worked to nearly destroy the old system.

Personally, for some I do not mind if a program of setting up a system of Public Medical Clinics to take the burden off Emergency Rooms.

Work to reestablish competition not just within a state but across states for health insurance.. Work to refine a system for reestablishing Employer provided Heath Insurance.

And remember Health Insurance is not health care.


31 posted on 11/17/2014 6:48:12 PM PST by ICCtheWay
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To: Lorianne

What needs to be done it to get rid of the monopolies.


At one time there was tremendous growth of local mutual insurance companies. Would be interesting to understand what went on then.


32 posted on 11/17/2014 6:48:44 PM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Let’s replace it with freedom!


33 posted on 11/17/2014 6:48:58 PM PST by meyer (Who needs gas chambers when you have Obamacare?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
That is why conservatives should push Republicans to have an alternative plan ready to pass should the Supreme Court strike down the federal subsidies — a decision that should come by late June.

How about we replace with a system that actually worked - the US medical insurance industry circa 1966?

34 posted on 11/17/2014 6:49:49 PM PST by skeeter
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Make all health care spending and medical expenses tax deductible, for the individual and his/her family only, not the employer. Employers can organize employee health groups, but employees pay the insurance.

Health care is no different than rebuilding the carburetor and feeding the gas tank on a company owned car. YOU are the equipment of your life, and your spending to keep it alive is your investment in the business. It is not income.

35 posted on 11/17/2014 6:50:41 PM PST by Defiant (GOP needs to be the party of no to socialism, yes to freedom.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The best thing that the GOVERNMENT can do to the HEALTH CARE industry is to stay the hell away from it. Allow all health insurance companies to compete nation wide. Allow tax free health savings accounts. Some people, especially the younger people, allow them to buy catastrophic insurance, to take care of any catastrophic events. Every individual can buy the health insurance he or she can afford. As for those people that can’t afford any health insurance, we have the counties and the states to take care of that, like we did in the past. That way, we can go back to where we were before the government got involved in the HEALTH CARE business.


36 posted on 11/17/2014 6:55:01 PM PST by gingerbread
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To: reasonisfaith
Yes sir, (truly) Free Markets work every time they are tried.
37 posted on 11/17/2014 7:46:19 PM PST by 2001convSVT (Going Galt as fast as I can.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

A whoopie cushion and two rubber chickens. Of course, that’s basically what ObamaCare is now.


38 posted on 11/17/2014 7:51:15 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer ('Provisional ballots'. When legal votes just aren't getting the job done. - The DemocRATS.)
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To: Jim Robinson
Freedom. The Constitution leaves healthcare to the states and people. It’s none of the fed’s business.

You're right that it's not the Fed's business… the problem is that they've redefined interstate commerce to cover not only intrastate commerce, but non-commerce as well (there's also precedent to flat-out ignore the constitution) — they use these to justify things like the War on Drugs, which they've convinced a lot of people to think is a Good Thing [and defend it], which they use to accumulate more and more power (be it from legislation, or precedent, or 'regulation').

39 posted on 11/17/2014 8:30:59 PM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: nascarnation

Health and dental.


40 posted on 11/17/2014 9:04:49 PM PST by US_MilitaryRules (The last suit you wear has no pockets!)
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