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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

FIXING OBAMACARE

Steve Cole writes:

The Republican attempt to repeal Obamacare won't work (at least until a new election) and plans to sabotage it by mucking with various parts of it will just make a mess. How about we just fix it? Don't repeal it, just eliminate the stupid parts and celebrate the smart parts.

First, eliminate the 1099 provision (requiring all businesses to fill out 1099s for everything they do). It's just stupid (even Obama said so) and has nothing to do with healthcare. This will have no effect on budget or Obamacare.

Second, eliminate the government takeover of student loans. There is no need for it. This will have no effect on budget or Obamacare.

Cancel the cut in Medicare, which we all knew would be canceled. Ok, that's going to cost $50 billion per year, but we all knew it was going to happen and I can cover it, see below.

Eliminate forced purchase. It's unconstitutional. This will drive up costs, since the whole deal of forcing insurance companies to provide coverage for pre-existing conditions, children, no caps, and so forth was going to double premiums, but forcing the young people to buy insurance would lower premiums. So, at that point in my plan, everybody's premiums go up even more than Obamacare has already driven them up, but I can fix that.

Institute Texas-style tort reforms in every state. Instant 15% cut in premiums in the 47 states without tort reform. The only ones hurt are trial lawyers and the congresscritters they bought off. Surely you agree.

Allow inter-state purchase of health insurance. This instantly lowers premiums by 20-60% for 85% of Americans. This also solves the problem of those who want to buy insurance but cannot find it as now they can find a state that will sell it to "anyone" (see Texas High Risk Pool). The only ones hurt are the special interest lobbyists who convinced this or that state legislature to mandate junk 98% of people never use (e.g., sex change operations).

Remove the edict that all states have to adopt the most generous Medicaid rules. States with generous medicaid are bankrupt. Those with non-generous Medicaid are not bankrupt. Do the math.

Claims that Obamacare lowers the deficit are nonsense and we all know it. That savings only happens if you count on massive Medicaid and Medicare cuts that we all know aren't going to happen, as well as other cuts that are offset by identical spending in separate legislation. No, Obamacare costs, it doesn't save.

Let's figure out ways to reward whistle-blowers who expose fraud, like doctors who see 999 patients in one day.

Illegal aliens do not get non-emergency healthcare; everybody can show proof of citizenship. Illegals can pay for their healthcare, or we can if you want bill their employers (and if they don't name an employer, we can deport them to their own countries where they can use the local healthcare system). Remember that Reid and Pelosi already included a "no illegal aliens" regulation, but then blocked every effort to require proof of citizenship. If you really think there is enough US cash to pay for US healthcare, you cannot possibly believe there is enough to pay for the rest of the world as well. (If they have green cards and pay taxes, then I'm ok with them.)

To sweeten the pot for you liberals, allow anyone to buy into Medicaid (no subsidies) which provides the public option you so desperately want. (As long as taxpayers don't have to pay for the public option, I have no problem with it.)

Raise the limit on companies forced to buy health insurance from 50 employees to 250, allowing small businesses to grow. Given all of the above, people can now buy affordable insurance on their own.