Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Philip Klein — CBO score makes the case for full repeal and free market replacement

In an effort to blunt Democratic attacks, House Republicans designed a healthcare plan that kept most of Obamacare's regulations in place and preserved some of its spending. The hope was that when it came time for the Congressional Budget Office to review the legislation, the bill would be more competitive with Obamacare on coverage than a full repeal coupled with a purer free market alternative. Now that the CBO has released its highly-anticipated estimate of the GOP alternative, it has obliterated that argument. Based on what we know now, the truth is that not only would full repeal coupled with a free market replacement be more satisfying to conservatives, it would likely be found by the CBO to cover more people. And we don't have to speculate much on this.…
How could that possibly be? How could a Republican plan that spends hundreds of billions of dollars offering tax credits to individuals and winds down Obamacare over several years cover no more people than a straight, immediate, full repeal would have? The reason is that the Republican replacement preserves many of Obamacare's regulations that drive up the cost of insurance. So, in essence, the GOP alternative would be asking people to purchase expensive Obamacare plans, with less financial assistance. In contrast, while full repeal would offer no assistance, because it would get rid of Obamacare's regulations, it would make insurance cheaper.
The push is on to repeal Obamacare and return to the status quo ante.
Instead of trying to game out the eccentricities of the Senate and predicting the moves of the parliamentarian and of moderate Senators, House Republicans should be focusing on passing what they promised — legislation that fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with a true free market alternative.
Washington Examiner
CBO score makes the case for full repeal and free market replacement
Philip Klein

3 comments:

Ryan Harris said...

Set the rules of the insurance game to be fair and then provide money for people who can't afford it, how flipping difficult is this?


We can't have Medicare Because (fill in goofy reason here).

Six said...

It's funny (not ha ha funny) that "your money or your life" is referred to as "the free market".

Penguin pop said...

Ryan, it shouldn't be this hard for these numskulls to understand, but I'm looking at some comments on a video I watched and it's all the same "you're not entitled to free services" or "nothing is life is free" and these people completely strawman and misunderstand others fighting on this basic point. I even told some of them that a lot of us do work pretty hard at our jobs, but that's the issue and it's about the government focusing on providing basic services for people and at least making the rules of the game fair like you said.