In recent weeks, we’ve been reading headline after headline describing the demise of the Affordable Care Act and while the stories are true, it is hardly news that a government-run approach to health care is absolutely the worst strategy.
Long before President Obama went on his legacy-finding mission and misled the American people in order to get ObamaCare signed into law, Tennessee learned firsthand the dangers of taking health insurance out of the hands of the private industry and handing it off to bureaucrats.
{mosads}The Affordable Care Act has been a complete farce from day one and its economic effects are devastating; the exchanges are collapsing, free-market competition is becoming a thing of the past, and the middle class is bearing the significant financial burden.
In the 1990s, Tennessee became the test case for government-run health care when then-First Lady, Hillary Clinton, was making the case for a similar system on a national level. It was dubbed TennCare and Tennesseans were promised much of what the country was promised with ObamaCare: lower costs and more coverage. Instead, the result was a program that nearly bankrupted the state within its first decade, reduced the quality of care, and then collapsed under its own weight. Tennesseans learned the promises of HillaryCare were a lie.
President Obama should have learned from the policy failures of TennCare, but despite my warnings he continued selling ObamaCare to the American people, often repeating lines like “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” He also promised expanded coverage and reduced health care costs. Neither of those things is happening and you don’t have to dig hard to find the startling facts.
According to Kaiser Family Foundation’s Cynthia Cox, more than 1 in 4 counties nationwide are at risk of having only a single insurance company on its health exchange next year.
Echoing that sentiment, Avalere concluded that 36 percent of regions across the country will have one or zero companies offering plans. Aetna recently announced it is pulling out of exchanges in 11 of 15 states, noting a $200 million loss in the second quarter this year. In the spring, Aetna said it would be pulling out of 26 of the 34 exchanges it offered coverage in 2016. It’s an unfortunate, but not surprising trend.
We were told that competition was a key to the success of ObamaCare, but instead it’s creating a monopoly. This is not choice. And this is far from being affordable.
People all across the country are seeing their premiums spike, and sadly, it’s slated to get worse. In 2017, Tennesseans could see their rates increase as much as 62 percent. This is a horribly frightening projection, but it’s not just The Volunteer State suffering, it’s hard-working people all across the nation.
A Harvard economist recently told the Wall Street Journal that for the lower and middle classes, the “income struggles and health-care struggles together are a really potent issue.”
This is a far cry from 2009 when President Obama said that he made “a long list of approaches that would not have impact on middle-class Americans. They’re not going to be forced to pay for this.” He said that premiums for the typical family would be lowered by $2,500 under ObamaCare. That simply is not true. Average premiums in job-based coverage have actually increased by nearly $3,800.
The Administration and ObamaCare supporters were never honest about the dangers in universal health care. In fact, one of the architects of the law was caught on tape bragging that a “lack of transparency” and the “stupidity” of the American voter helped get ObamaCare signed into law.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi threw her support behind the law as well, but irresponsibly said we had to “pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” Clearly, this was more about leaving behind a legacy and less about the American people, who have become the unfortunate victims of this grave disservice.
The American people deserve better and that’s why the Republicans aren’t sitting idle in the wake of this disaster. We’ve been fighting for quite some time to repeal and replace ObamaCare, and this summer we rolled out a comprehensive plan in the House to do just that.
Our mission is simple: In America, everyone has access to quality, affordable health care. We will provide more choices, lower costs, accelerate cutting-edge cures and treatments, and get the health care system on track so that Americans can get care when they want it, where they want it, at a price they can afford. Our current system is unsustainable and we must continue fighting to implement market-based reforms.
Marsha Blackburn is a Republican House member from Tennessee and is vice chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
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