Don’t Wait on Congress

By AAPS, Special for  USDR

While Republicans in Congress argue over repealing or replacing or delaying on the Affordable Care Act (ACA or “ObamaCare”), the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) presents an immediate action plan in a recently released White  Paper.

“ObamaCare is not like a weak but still beating heart,” states AAPS executive director Jane Orient, M.D. “It’s more like a cancer. You don’t want to replace a cancer. You just want to support the patient as he recovers from its  removal.”

President Obama famously promised that “if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” But the question today, Dr. Orient suggests, is: “If you don’t like your government plan, do you have to keep  it?”

The problem is not just ObamaCare, but the whole “healthcare delivery system,” including other government entitlements, with which ObamaCare is inextricably intertwined. This structure is unsustainable. AAPS compares it with the Leaning Tower of Pisa, now kept from collapsing by 800 tons of lead brick counterweights, among other costly and ingenious  expedients.

The system depends on deficit financing and has already accumulated an enormous, unpayable debt, AAPS explains. Collapse is inevitable. Rescuing people trapped in the structure is imperative, and efforts must begin  now.

Factors forcing people to stay on government-financed or subsidized plans include the lack of alternatives and the ObamaCare penalties, which are increasing greatly. “ACA regulations have driven affordable plans out of the market,” AAPS notes. “And low-risk individuals are forced to pay a premium many times higher than is actuarially  fair.”

ObamaCare is enforced by the executive branch. Obama propped it up by dozens of unilateral changes. President-elect Trump can reverse those unlawful actions. He should begin by withdrawing the Obama Administration’s appeal of U.S. House of Representatives v. Burwell, which would then allow the district court ruling against Obama’s illegal subsidies, which use money Congress did not appropriate, to go into  effect.

Comprehensive third-party payment plans are not insurance, and this concept is a flaw in the foundation of ObamaCare, Medicare, and Medicaid, the AAPS White Paper explains. “All these entitlements basically involve the forcible redistribution of wealth, not insurance,” Dr. Orient  states.

“True reform means we must reject unsound economic premises and remove barriers to competition. We don’t want to replace one damaged tower with another one having the same disastrous flaws,” she  continues.

“We hope Congress will not place a Republican imprimatur on a concept designed to fail. Meanwhile, President Trump can make changes permitting freedom to  thrive.”


SOURCE Association of American Physicians and Surgeons  (AAPS)
