A leading conservative senator, blaming Obamacare for skyrocketing health care prices in his state, laid out policy solutions Tuesday to create a health care system that puts Americans and their doctors back in charge.
“If you allow the worker to get pretax dollars, get non-tax dollars, and allow the worker to purchase his or her own health insurance on the open market rather than having the tax benefit following the employer, that’s a big step in that direction in and of itself,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said during a panel discussion at the America First Policy Institute summit in Washington.
“President [Donald] Trump started that and naturally, given that it is a really good idea, President [Joe] Biden discontinued it,” Lee added during the session on public policy focused on helping patients and their doctors regain control of health care choices.
Lee argued for a free market system, saying the U.S. must “stop extending, stop expanding Obamacare,” officially known as the Affordable Care Act.
“In order to do that, I think we’ve got to make the case to the American people that Obamacare is bad—not because we disagree with it ideologically, but because it’s hurting people,” the Utah Republican said.
Former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, chairman of the institute’s Center for a Healthy America, served as moderator for the panel discussion. Joining Lee were Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., and Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio.
Lee noted that inflation has cost the average American family $718 more per month for basic items since the start of 2021, when Biden took over from Trump.
“We’ve all felt the effects of inflation. Inflation is the direct result of excessive government intervention. Too many dollars chasing too few goods,” Lee told the crowd at the summit organized by the America First Policy Institute, a think tank founded by former Trump administration and campaign officials, and held at the Marriott Marquis hotel less than a mile from the White House.
Lee, who is seeking a third six-year term, said that on top of rising prices, health care in his state also has been hit by “excessive government intervention.”
He said:
In my home state of Utah, between 2013, just before Obamacare kicked in in earnest, and 2019, after it had been in effect for a few years, the cost of health insurance went up by 171%, meaning it was almost triple its cost since 2013. All of that is due to excessive government spending.
And what do the Democrats want to do now? They want to double down. They want to do it more.
Across the nation, Obamacare has resulted in a 129% increase in individual health care costs, according to a report by The Heritage Foundation. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s multimedia news organization.)
“One of the first things that they did after the Democrats took control of both [chambers] of Congress and of the White House, they passed this awful bill that, among other really bad things…,expanded what we were spending in the health insurance premium payments to those above 400% of the federal poverty line,” Lee said.
“The whole idea of this program [Obamacare] was to help people who don’t have health insurance to get health insurance.”
Well Mike Lee…maybe term limits for congress might help….get rid of people like John McCain that are still in congress.???
Scrap all Obamacare OR place under Medicare??
Why did a young man from Hawaii, after a year as a non-producing editor of the law review and graduation from Harvard Law School, decide to relocate to, settle in and become a neighborhood organizer in Chicago? Could it be because Frank Marshall Davis originated there, had influencial friends and supportive contacts? Was he such an extraordinary student that he gained entrance to elite educational institutions on merit alone, or is something sinister at work? Amazing how quickly a public figure’s scholastic records can be sealed and removed from scrutiny. So now, there is the ACA. And after his rapid climb accomplishing all he set out to do for his people, did he return to them and continue his missionary work after his selfless public “service?” Phooey!
Obamacare is first FASCIST healthcare and Un-American.
Don’t forget SWAMP QUEEN pelosi’s infamous saying of; we have to pass it so we can find out what’s in it.
No. You READ IT FIRST. Instead, they FORCE IT on the American people when WE DID NOT and DO NOT want Obamacare. Just like the Communist woke policies FORCED on US today that 83% of AMERICANS DO NOT want or like that DICTATOR Beijing biden has ILLEGALLY and UNCONSTITUTIONALLY FORCED on AMERICANS.
Obamacare Premium’s WILL SKYROCKET on September 1, 2022. So get ready to EMPTY your WALLET MORE.
You have SWAMP QUEEN pelosi and DICTATOR Beijing biden to thank for it with PATHETIC medical services.
What id like to know is where was the republican plan to counter the aca. Why act now when the aca is embedded into the fabric of society. The time for all out effort was when they held congress.
Obamacare is working exactly how it was designed to work in terms of raising costs, curtailing medical care, reducing quality of care and over-riding medical professionals to perscribe medical care based solely on a lengthy set of the government edicts handed down from HHS on a continual basis. The entire medical profession has been completely transformed with most individual medical practices either consumed by larger institutions like hospitals or simply driven out of business altogether.
The opportunity to repeal Obamacare has long passed. The Republicans in Congress had an opportunity to repeal most of Obamacare in 2017, but they instead opted to do a Keystone Kops routine for a year and throw away the last viable opportunity to effect positive change. Now too much time has passed and too many changes have been made to restore any semblance of a pre-Obamacare world to the medical profession. There is literally nothing left to save at this point. Obamacare broke medical care in this country and exacted higher prices as an additional insult to the American people. That was intentional. We are now stuck with a badly broken and increasingly expensive medical industry as exactly as the Democrats wanted.
The goal of Democrats is still single payer, with the government dictating everything and all medical professionals essentially being government employees. The cost of single payer is even higher than Obamacare, but since when have Democrats ever cared about the true cost of anything? The reality is Senator Lee is whistling past the graveyard with his proposal, which will go nowhere. It’s a decade too late and the old system has been completely destroyed.
The whole industry became a behemoth, it’s purpose to make big profit patient is secondary if not tertiary we are only a piece of meat on that assembly line
Trump endorced the PA candidate Oz and it has backfired. PA will likely now remain controlled by democrates as Trump did not listen to PA residents choice for the republican candidate. Oz is not a native to PA and this is effecting his polling numbers. Thanks Mr. Trump. PA was trying to get a change in our state. It seems unatainable now.
I have an idea but can’t my Senators and Representative to respond. “Well care for all”.
To satisfy free market libertarians:
All insurance plans are individual-no more groups. No more employer.
All insurance plans sold across state lines.
All insurance plans cover same things so the consumer can compare easily.
Only variance in insurance plans are deductible versus premium.
Individual takes the risk on coverage – not unlike collision insurance.
To satisfy politicians hungry for power:
Well care is provided by govt
Politicians decide what constitutes “well” ie NOT cosmetic enhancement surgery NOT hospital stay etc. YES childhood vaccines annual checkups etc.
To satisfy conservatives:
WellCare must be self sustaining with a cost for every individual man woman and child paid via taxes no exceptions unless disabled.
Obama care is just one more step closer to communism.
Not only Obamacare, but Medicare and all medical insurance! Who do you think is paying for the huge cost of all their salaries, buildings, corp. profits, etc? Case in point: I’m 94 and from 1955-62 we lived in L.A., had 4 children and no insurance. It wasn’t offered by all employers in at that time because it wasn’t really needed. The hospital was $35 a day (now $1,900 a day), the OGBYN was $250 for the entire 9 months including delivery, and the anesthesiologist was $80 and all would take payments without interest. That was very affordable, even at that time. Now, even under Medicare you need a supplement (insurance ON insurance!) to make it. More “pork” added.
I SHOULD ADD…..In cases of unusually high medical bills before medicare & other insurances, family, friends, church, etc. all chipped in to help. No overhead costs like insurance companies. They still do something similar yet today. You see “GO FUND ME” requests all the time. Same thing.
So who in the government has the backbone to stand up for America instead of padding their own pockets.Enough is enough.What’s it going to take to clean up this huge mess?
ARREST THE WHOLE biden administration for treason and murder!……
Obamacare was an illegal law. A usurpation of government over it’s citizens. A Communist expansion of government size.
It must go the way of Roe vs. Wade.
Government should never have been allowed to intervene with the insurance industry, or any other business industry. Capitalism will always work itself out by eliminating failed business actions. Government agencies support bad business.
Obama care was, and is, just a way to transfer taxpayer money into the pockets of insurance company investors. Consider that the government subsidies are always paid on the premiums for qualifying people. This happens even if no other premium payments are paid by the “insured.”Next, consider that this “insurance” has a high deductible that most low income people can not make. Now you have money paid to insurance companies on policies they know will never have a claim. And that money is YOUR tax money.
i really like how some repubs are on the attack in this election throwing up one issue after another issue, hitting them from all sides not just one or a couple, keeping the socialist creeps on the defensive and off balance. it’s a great effective strategy! the ALL need to pick an issue and ATTACK!
Prior to Obamacare, my deductible was about $300, then when Obamacare kicked in, it went up to $5,000, right when I replaced a cataract. Calling it “Affordable” is like saying that a hungry shark is docile.
My daughter
We need 434 more like Mike Lee.
If you want great…inexpensive health insurance…check out Christian Healthcare Ministrys….or chm.com
Live in central ca., can hardly find a medical provider willing to take Obamacare/ca care. It just doesn’t pay.