Senators Introduce Republican ObamaCare Alternative, Op-Ed Slams Obama

Three senior GOP senators on Monday proposed a Republican ObamaCare alternative that would abolish the federal mandate requiring all to have health insurance.

“If a consumer does not want a plan that includes coverage for acupuncture, hair loss, maternity coverage and massage – the government shouldn’t force them to buy it,” the Republican senators wrote in an op-ed on FoxNews.com

While the proposal represents a new strategy for the Republican Party to repeal and replace the federal overhaul, a joint op-ed slammed Obama for portraying efforts to dismantle the deeply unpopular and deeply flawed law as going “back” as he tries to move the country “forward” despite the GOP.

“We expect him to claim the mantle of ‘forward’ progress and suggest that anyone who opposes the law either does not understand it or simply wants to go ‘back’ to days when insurance companies wreaked havoc on consumers,” the Republican senators wrote on FoxNews.com.

Dubbed the Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility and Empowerment Act, the Republican ObamaCare alternative would repeal the president’s signature health care law, while putting new reforms in place that would put states and individuals back in charge of health care, providing more flexibility and purchasing power.

“Our proposal starts with a very different set of assumptions from those who designed ObamaCare. We believe Washington, D.C. should actually reform – not try to manage – the private health insurance market,” they collectively wrote in the piece.

That is what the American people have been asking for since the debate over health care reform began, and the reason why ObamaCare has remained deeply unpopular despite millions of dollars being spent by the government to change public opinion.

“We trust the choices of individual patients and consumers, not paternalistic bureaucrats.”

Under the Republican ObamaCare alternative plan, insurances companies would not be allowed to impose lifetime limits on patients and would be required to allow dependent coverage up to the age of 26, as ObamaCare does and is one of the only popular provisions in the overhaul.

The Republican ObamaCare alternative would also address the issue of pre-existing conditions by creating a new “continuous coverage” standard, which prevents any individual moving from one insurance plan to another from being denied on the basis of a pre-existing condition.

But unlike ObamaCare, in the CARE Act, as the Republican proposal is referred to in short, those moving between insurance plans can do so only if that individual was continuously enrolled in a health plan.

“Americans deserve a real alternative, and a way out,” Coburn said.

The Republican alternative to ObamaCare proposes the use of targeted tax credits to help individuals buy health coverage. As for employees who are seeking employer-sponsored coverage working for a small business with 100 or fewer employees, they would be able to receive a credit, while those whose annual income is 300 percent of the federal poverty level could receive an age-adjusted refundable tax credit to buy health coverage.

Small businesses would also be allowed to pool together and purchase insurance, as in group coverage and across state lines, which health insurance experts and companies have said for years would substantially reduce the cost of coverage.

The proposed way to offset the costs of the plan will not be popular among elements on the right side of the aisle, as the senators proposed to keep ObamaCare’s cuts to Medicare. They also eliminate the unlimited tax exclusion of employer-provided health coverage, and instead the plan caps the employer’s tax exclusion at 65 percent of an average plan’s cost.

Because the plan was just released, no CBO estimate of the bill’s cost yet exists, though the Congressional Budget Office was grossly inaccurate when they estimated ObamaCare. The senators said it is designed to be “roughly budget neutral” over a 10-year period.

Under the plan, Medicaid reforms would enable eligible individuals to opt out and take advantage of a health credit to purchase coverage, while enrollment would be capped. Federal funds would be distributed back to the states based upon to the number of low-income individuals who are at or below 100 percent of the federal poverty line.

And those funds would have to reflect demographic and population changes, according to the senators.

Several medical malpractice reforms and disclosure rules are included in the plan, which would require insurers to list covered items and services as well as any limitations or restrictions.

“It’s critical we chart another path forward,” said Coburn, a medical doctor who announced his early retirement this month. “Our health care system wasn’t working well before ObamaCare and it is worse after ObamaCare. Americans deserve a real alternative, and a way out. I’m pleased to take this important step with my colleagues,” Coburn said in a statement.