As the country nears its first anniversary of the passage of Obamacare, the health care fight is just getting started.
Last week, the House of Representatives passed a measure to fully repeal Obamacare, and 28 states have filed lawsuits to contest the law’s constitutionality, a decision that will ultimately be made by the Supreme Court. At the same time, the states continue to resist the federal health care overhaul by passing new legislation and delaying implementation.
Clearly, the future of Obamacare is anything but settled. Rather, its passage has served only to ignite the fire, fueled by accounts of the numerous negative effects of the law, which include everything from increasing premiums and loss of coverage to new taxes and job losses.
Now, Heritage health policy experts have compiled “The Case Against Obamacare: A Health Policy Series for the 112th Congress.” This collection of papers highlights the 15 major provisions of the new law. Our analysts explain the disastrous consequences these provisions of Obamacare will have for all Americans and highlight the right way for legislators to solve the issues that Obamacare fails to address.
For example, Obamacare’s individual mandate was intended to solve the “free rider” problem of individuals foregoing coverage and relying instead on taxpayer-funded emergency room care. Heritage expert Robert Moffit explains how this provision is not only an unconstitutional threat to liberty and the American tradition of federalism but will also have dire consequences on insurance markets, including a likely increase in the number of uninsured.
Instead of an individual mandate, Moffit writes that Congress should address the “free rider” issue “through a judicious combination of positive economic incentives, such as tax credits and vouchers for insurance, creative new mechanisms to facilitate coverage (such as automatic enrollment with a right to refuse coverage), and transparency in personal choice and consequences, such as an upfront signed acknowledgement of financial liability for refusing coverage.”
The series points to the Obamacare provisions that will destroy jobs, create incentives for businesses to drop employer-sponsored coverage, raise premiums, reduce patient choice, crowd out private coverage, threaten seniors’ access to care—the list goes on. “The Case Against Obamacare” makes the next step in health care reform overwhelmingly clear: Obamacare must be fully repealed. If Congress is to successfully address the flaws in the health care system, it cannot begin on a flawed foundation. In the meantime, lawmakers must do all they can to block continued damage to the health care system under Obamacare.
To check out the series, click here.