The American Health Care Act is the healthcare solution America needs

The American Health Care Act (AHCA) is the free market solution needed to adequately repeal and replace ObamaCare, and more importantly, restore affordability and quality care to Americans from coast to coast.

That’s why the National Taxpayers Union, Americans for Tax Reform, the Association of Mature American Citizens, Center of the American Experiment, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, Independent Women’s Voice, Institute for Liberty, Log Cabin Republicans, Market Institute, ObamaCare Repeal Coalition, Six Degrees Project, and the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council have all signed an open letter to Congress urging its swift passage.

{mosads}AHCA is a market-oriented remedy to the collapsing system of ObamaCare that has created rapidly rising premiums, diminished access to care, and caused costs to skyrocket. AHCA restores liberty, consumer choice, and innovation by eliminating the individual and employer mandates, which were a hidden tax on Americans.

Instead of an overreaching government mandate, this legislation would create a means-tested, advanceable and refundable tax credit for those who lack employer-sponsored coverage or don’t qualify for government programs. This tax credit empowers consumers to shop around and find a plan that works for them, rather than a one-size-fits all approach forcing them to pay for coverage that they may not even need.

This bill also repeals nearly every tax put in place by ObamaCare, including the prescription drug tax, the so-called medicine cabinet tax and the health insurance tax, while expanding Health Savings Accounts and increasing the flexibility to use these funds.

At a time of ballooning federal deficits and years of out-of-control government spending, this legislation implements the most significant entitlement reform in more than 20 years by allowing states to accept either a per capita allotment or a block grant for Medicaid. This action shifts power out of Washington and transfers it closer to home, allowing states to innovate and provide better healthcare that fits their citizens’ needs.

But what AHCA won’t do is pull the rug out from under Americans. It allows for a stable transition to the new system, while still preventing those with pre-existing conditions from being denied coverage and increased costs. It also continues to allow young people to stay on their parents’ coverage until the age of 26 – one of the few popular provisions of ObamaCare.

AHCA is step one of the Republican plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare; the other steps cannot occur without the enactment of this bill. ObamaCare is on an unsustainable path, costing taxpayers billions of dollars without providing the coverage and care Americans were promised. It’s been a disaster for this nation and it’s time for it to be scrapped.

Republicans control Congress and the White House in large part due to their promise to eliminate ObamaCare and establish a patient-centered, free market approach. This important bill hands Americans the tools to decide what type of coverage they need, not what type of coverage the government demands they have. 

Thomas A. Schatz is president of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW). CAGW works to eliminate waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government and has more than one million members and supporters nationwide. Find them on Twitter: @GovWaste.

The views of contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.