It was bound to happen.  Cronyism has muddled up the main reasons that the people elected an majority GOP government.   Once again big insurance appears to be the benefactor of the new version of the Affordable Care Act.   Since Obama started talking about this, and through the many variations of this new style of healthcare, the ACA and now the “Obamacare Lite” reform has neither been affordable, nor has it represented what the USA is all about, which is freedom.

Paul Ryan’s Obamacare Lite

I am not going to pretend to be an expert about the ACA or Obamacare Lite, but I have been reporting on this since 2009, and I have not been a fan of any of this.   People should not be mandated, forced, or penalized by the government for what should be a private and personal choice.  Buying insurance does not hurt anyone else’s life, liberty or property and therefore should not be regulated by the government with such heavy handedness.

First of all, I will assert what rights and what privileges are.  Despite what Bernie Sanders says, healthcare is not a right, it is a privilege.  A person does not have a right to someone else’s time/labor, skills or resources.  That would be slavery to say that “I have a right to get the services of Dr. Franklin, and to deny me that right should be a crime”, because that would make Dr. Franklin a slave.   Hopefully we all agree that slavery is not right.

More on that on a constitutional level;

“No state shall convert a liberty into a license, and charge a fee therefore.” (Murdock v. Pennsylvania, 319 U.S. 105)

“If a State converts a right (liberty) into a privilege, the citizen can ignore the license and fee and engage in the right (liberty) with impunity.” (Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham, Albama, 373 U.S. 262)

http://www.begnopardon.com/rights-vs-priviliges.html

Doctors, patients and insurance customers should have the liberty to choose who, what, when and IF they subscribe to whatever service, occupation, or contract.   There should be no government enforcement of personal contracts like this.
As for why healthcare prices are so high in the USA.  It is the same reason that the National Healthcare System in the UK is having so many problems, shutting down hospitals, 25k cancer patients went unseen last year, and 1 in 5 patients are waiting between 4-12 hours for emergency care.   It is the socialism issue, of supply and demand not balancing out, and government mandates costing a fortune because of price fixing and costly regulations.   Since being in the UK I have wrote on this blog and posted photos of national newspapers in the UK regarding their failing system.    Reference this search on this blog;  disruptarian.com/index.php?s=healthcare

Rand Paul explains it better than myself by comparing Communism and Free Markets.   Rand Paul is a physician, and he knows first hand what the cost of healthcare looks like and why.

Capitalism vs Socialism, Rand Paul vs Mikhail Gorbachev

As for congress, this American Healthcare Act (Obamacare Lite) does not look like it will succeed.

The House Freedom Caucus was publicly against this strategy before Ryan even rolled it out. The group of more than 40 House conservatives remains steadfastly opposed to Ryan’s plan on this front, showing no signs of breaking as they signaled before it was introduced, and now many Republican offices outside the House Freedom Caucus privately tell Breitbart News that as many as 70 or more House Republicans are opposed to Ryan’s plan.  From Breitbart

This is from Rand Paul’s website, and this is the plan that I support for replacing the terrible and costly Affordable Care Act.  Rand Paul’s solutions make sense.
https://randpaul.com/news/obamacare-replacement-act-rand-paul

Legalize Inexpensive Insurance Plans:

• Obamacare not only told individuals that they must purchase insurance, but defined specifically what that insurance must be. The first order of business should be to ensure that Americans can purchase the health insurance coverage that fits their needs.
• By imposing a variety of requirements on what plans can cover and how much they pay out in claims, Obamacare significantly increased premiums. By eliminating Obamacare’s essential health benefits requirement, and other restrictive coverage and plan requirements, low-cost insurance options will again be available to American consumers.

Help People Save To Buy Health Insurance:

• Authorize a tax credit (up to $5,000 per taxpayer) for individuals and families that contribute to HSAs to further incentivize health savings.
• Remove the maximum allowable annual contribution limit to HSAs, so that individuals may make unlimited contributions to an HSA.
• Currently, HSA funds may not be used to purchase insurance or cover the cost of premiums. Allowing the use of HSA funds for insurance premiums will help make health coverage more affordable for American families.
• Allowing HSA funds to be used for a broader range of health-related expenses give Americans the freedom to choose the type of health care they wish to receive. Eligible expenses are expanded to include prescription and OTC drugs, dietary supplements, weight loss programs and physical exercise expenses, and direct primary care and concierge medicine services, among others.

Fair Tax Treatment of Health Insurance

• Equalize the tax treatment of the purchase of health insurance for individuals and employers, by allowing individuals to deduct the cost of their health insurance from their income and payroll taxes, they will be empowered to purchase insurance independent of employment.

Help Individuals Join Together to Purchase Insurance:

• Expand Association Health Plans (AHPs) allow small business owners and individuals to band together across state lines through their membership in a trade or professional association to purchase health coverage for their families and employees at a lower cost.
• In addition, we should allow individuals to pool together through any organization to purchase insurance.
• These new pooling mechanisms increase the buying power of individuals and small businesses to decrease costs, increase administrative efficiencies, and protect individuals with pre-existing conditions by giving them access to the group market.

Allow the Purchase of Insurance Across State Lines

• Increase access to health coverage by creating an interstate market for health insurance that allows insurers licensed to sell policies in one state to offer them to residents of any other state.

State Medicaid Flexibility

• Provides states new flexibilities for Medicaid waivers for innovative state plan designs.

What the Paul Ryan plan does is make insurance cost more, give 30% penalties for people who haven’t had insurance for more than 63 days, and continue many of the bad aspects of Obamacare.  I am glad that there are liberty minded representatives like Rand Paul in government to put a stop to this madness!

Rand Paul vs. Paul Ryan on Healthcare

Rand Paul vs. Paul Ryan on Healthcare