OAR Blog Post: Replace Obamacare and give families more control

Since the law’s inception, Republican governors from all over the country have expressed grave concerns about Obamacare’s disastrous consequences. In 2009, then-U.S. Representative Mike Pence (current governor of Indiana) said, “We must do better” and say “‘no’ to a government takeover of health care.” In 2012, Florida Governor Rick Scott declared that the Sunshine State would not create a state-based exchange, citing how the law would raise healthcare costs for its citizens and saying the law “just doesn’t work.” Over the years, their words were proven right as Obamacare has in many cases jeopardized coverage, increased prices, and reduced choice in medical care.

As a Supreme Court decision on King v. Burwell looms — which will determine the legality of Obamacare subsidies in states without exchanges– one thing remains clear: Obamacare is just as problematic as it was on day one and has done little to empower families and improve health care.

Since Obamacare’s implementation, we have only seen more broken promises and no solutions from the Obama Administration.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker spent nearly two years getting all the facts on the exchanges and determined that state exchanges were “state in-name-only.” Walker said, “The federal government determines what’s going to be covered, how it’s going to be covered” causing there to be “no real substantive difference between a federal exchange or a state exchange.”

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal—who has described Obamacare as “a train wreck”—echoed a similar point in an interview with Fox News, saying “It became very obvious very quickly that it was going to be a state exchange in-name-only and that it was going to be dictated to us as to what we could and could not do by the federal government.”

Given the impending Court decision, President Obama should be prepared to fix the mess he created. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley summed it up well saying, “What we’re going to do is continue to talk to D.C. and say ‘Look, you got us into this mess, you guys now need to get us out of this mess.’”

Obamacare has been plagued with serious problems since day one and it’s time for President Obama to come to terms with what Republican governors have recognized from the start: Obamacare is a disaster and needs to be replaced with policies that finally give families—not the federal government—more control over health care.