BetterCare restores individual liberties ObamaCare took away

The debate over healthcare and the role government should or should not play goes all the way back to the 1930s and 1940s, so it’s no big surprise that it’s something we’re still debating today. It’s contentious in part because we can’t seem to agree on the exact role of the government in all of this.

It’s safe to say that a majority of Americans believe we should have a healthcare system that covers the most number of people possible, including the elderly, disabled, and poor. Even my fellow Republicans would have to agree, unless of course, they are okay with not covering grandma or the relative who has a child with disabilities.

{mosads}Candor would oblige them to admit that such an argument would be rather difficult to make. After all, what decent person would rally against covering those who fall under any of those three categories? Regardless, we have fundamental disagreements about the best landscape that allows for a thriving healthcare system.

We need a system that allows free choice versus compulsory force by the government. The Supreme Court should have never sided with the government in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, but it did. Millions of Americans and thousands of small business owners are living with the result every day, and it does not look good.

Today, we see a landscape where premiums are continuing to rise, healthcare providers are pulling out of state exchanges, and small business owners have had to lay off employees or not hire new ones because of the cost. While we may have covered millions of new people, the questions must be asked, at what expense?

Nearly every week an insurance company is pulling out of the market, or we hear of increasing premiums. From Anthem exiting the Ohio exchange, to Aetna completely pulling out, to Blue Cross Blue Shield announcing it will pull out of Nebraska’s exchange in 2018, along with a 23 percent premium increase next year, it all comes on the heels of Cigna announcing an increase of more than 31 percent. It should be clear that ObamaCare just isn’t working, and the only appropriate fix is market-based.

The essential notion of ObamaCare is built fundamentally on force. The government is essentially using compulsory force to mandate that Americans buy into a program to cover more people, which is an infringement on the individual liberties of every American. Yet, the fundamental notion of healthcare as advocated by Democrats is built on this paradigm.

I must admit that the intentions behind ObamaCare should be applauded, but the bad moral values of force are bigger than the good intentions of the law. Sure, Democrats set out with the intent to do good, but trying to do good with methods that involve force can sometimes lead to bad results. And the belief by many advocates of the bill that their sincerity triumphs the shortcomings of ObamaCare is nothing more than folly.

To be honest, sincerity is such an overrated virtue because the reformer believes he truly knows what is good for me, you, and everyone else and will do whatever it takes to accomplish their end goal, regardless of whether or not it’s beneficial to my interest or yours.

I certainly believe we should make every effort to expand healthcare, but expand it in a way that is in sync with a capitalist society. It should allow for voluntary cooperation and voluntary exchange, and anything short of that is antithetical to our inherent capitalist values.

While the House version was horrific, the Senate version, known as BetterCare, is indeed much better. It stabilizes the markets, which is collapsing across the country and provides relief for millions of American’s and small business owners from the ObamaCare mandate.

The Senate version of the bill is not perfect, it returns power back to the individual and is based on the principles of voluntary cooperation and free exchange. With further tweaks to Medicaid to assure that we’re taking care of our elderly and disabled, we will have the closest things to quality ObamaCare reform.

Shermichael Singleton is a CNN political commentator and a Republican political strategist who has worked on the presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney and Ben Carson. Follow him on Twitter @Shermichael_.

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