Reject Obamacare; let free market lower costs, expand access

Obamacare has been a failure for the many Kentuckians who lost their insurance despite the president’s promise that if you “like your plan, you can keep your plan.” The law’s red tape, mandates and taxes continue to drive up health-care prices forcing many Kentuckians to choose between insurance plans they cannot afford or government-run plans they do not want.

Next year, health insurance premiums in Kentucky will increase an average of 27 percent. A report from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky found that only 26 percent of Kentucky small businesses will be able to offer their employees health insurance, a drop of 10 percent in the last year. And the collapse of the Kentucky Health Cooperative forced 51,000 Kentuckians to find new insurance, many for the second or third time since the law was enacted.

And for the many rural hospitals in the Sixth District that I have visited, the law has resulted in more bad debt and less charitable care. Frankly, these rural facilities are struggling to survive, which threatens access to care for many rural Kentuckians.

These failures prove that the law is unsustainable, and many have suggested that the law very well may collapse under its own weight. It is no wonder that former President Bill Clinton recently described the chaos in America’s health-care system as “the craziest thing in the world.”

That is why I have been fighting for common-sense health-care reforms that will actually make health insurance more affordable and accessible.

Because the first step to fixing our broken health-care system is to stop Obamacare, I have voted dozens of times to repeal the law in part or in full. I also supported the use of budget reconciliation to bypass the Senate filibuster and put repeal legislation on the president’s desk for the first time.

However, repealing this law alone will not fix our health-care system. That is why I am a cosponsor of the American Health Care Reform Act. This legislation would expand access to portable health insurance, ensure those with pre-existing conditions have access to care through expanded high-risk pools, spur competition between insurers to lower costs and encourage innovation.

The act also includes legislation I introduced, the Saving Lives, Saving Costs Act. This bill would lower health-care costs by encouraging the practice of evidence-based medicine and discouraging defensive medicine.

I also support the House Republican Better Way to Fix Health Care Plan — a blueprint to expand choice, lower costs, reduce bureaucracy and increase innovation. The Better Way agenda was driven by members of the House, reflecting the feedback received from our constituents. As Obamacare has proven, government and bureaucracy rarely deliver what is best for the American people.

The most effective way for achieving availability and affordability is not through increased government involvement, but rather reforms that allow the free market to work. That does not mean we should return to the pre-Obamacare status quo, but clearly with the law’s many broken promises, skyrocketing costs and decreased coverage, we need to take a different approach.

This story was originally published October 24, 2016 at 12:52 PM with the headline "Reject Obamacare; let free market lower costs, expand access."