[ilgipper]

I haven’t read it, so I will be able to critique the proposal once I do. The problem is that the federal government is already massively intertwined with medical service and insurance. Medicare and Medicaid are a primary driver of the problems we have. Those problems need to be identified and fixed. We can’t act like the government should not act at all because there is no stomach among any group, including the vast majority of our own conservative base who want Medicare to be gone. The government is already knee deep before Obamacare. That isn’t going to change even if Obamacare is eliminated tomorrow. There is a place...and a necessity to fix this situation. More government is most definitely not the solution, but that doesn’t mean doing nothing.

[Marcella]

I have read it carefully, and it will work. There is now a law regarding healthcare, Obamacare, so it has to be dealt with by a law. Government is in healthcare and one can't just say stop it and it happen. If Obamacare was overturned now, with no replacement, all the people insured by it would likely have no healthcare as those policies likely would be dropped by insurance companies because the law would be gone - they are a mess and people don't know if they have it or not and insurance companies are struggling to find what is happening. The only healthcare that would remain without a problem right now would be people on an employer's healthcare. Employers’ healthcare plans are also going to be a mess when they have to change theirs before the end of this year in order to comply with Obamacare rules.

What this replacement does is allow people to privately get insurance and have a tax credit to help if they buy it - that is an incentive to get it - not be forced to get it.

It allows people who have had insurance for a time to change to another policy even if they have a preexisting condition. If a person loses his/her job and loses employer insurance, they can get a private policy even though they have a preexisting condition and that is a good thing.

It has a mandate but that mandate is not like the “you have to buy it or get whacked” mandate. This mandate has states automatically enroll their citizens in a healthcare plan. Then, IF THE CITIZEN DOESN'T WANT IT, they opt out. They are not forced to keep it.

It also gets rid of taking billions from Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare/Medicaid are not in this bill. If the bill replaces Obamacare, then Medicare/Medicaid are not included to be raided.

If reform of Medicare/Medicaid needs to be done without leaving the elderly with no care, that can be done outside of this bill.

Something has to happen to get rid of Obamacare and this bill does it and replaces it with something that will work. Those of you who want Obamacare repealed and nothing more done are not thinking. There will be chaos nationwide in healthcare if it is just repealed.