The alternative to Obamacare

In light of all of the exemptions (waivers) being doled out by the democrat administration to their friends in the business world and their friends in the labor unions (companies, non-profits, and unions would have to otherwise drop their health insurance plans without the waivers due to the high cost of the required changes forced upon them by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or "Obamacare"), there is much talk of repealing the law and starting over with healthcare reform. The more reliable republican alternative was offered during the McCain campaign but was not well defended by the candidate and therefore ignored by most of the voting population. What is the alternative for improving (reforming) our healthcare system:

• End the tax preference/benefit for employer-provided health insurance gradually over the course of several years. This will encourage the growth of the market for individually purchased insurance (I actually have such a plan) that gives individuals or families more control over their plan and its costs, and make it possible for them to take it from job to job.



• The tax break should be converted into a flat credit so the most expensive insurance plans (used for high wage employees) lose the incentive to overspend. Employees should be able to use the credit toward their company plans OR allowed to use them for self-purchased plans.



• Allow individuals and families to buy insurance across state lines. The competition among insurers would reduce premiums, and the regulations of individual states would arguably have less impact on one's costs.



• With individual plans purchased on the open market, people would be able to select renewable policies instead of relying on an employer's plan that terminates when they quit or get laid off and causes great difficulty to those with chronic illness in getting a new policy (the pre-existing condition problem). Although younger people can lock in renewable policies right now on open market plans, people with pre-existing conditions right now would still be unserved, so republicans support creating a government "high-risk pool" subsidized program for the uninsurable today that would be weened away after several generations.



• The federal government should cap (establish maximum not to exceed funding level) Medicaid and let the states run the program to provide aid to only the most needy in each state.



• Medicare must be converted to a voucher program with the budget for each person established using reasonable formulas or criteria. The alternative is provided in Obamacare: tax increases and healthcare rationing.

The healthcare system pre-obamacare was not a free market system, it was over-regulated and therefore an excessively government manipulated system. It was not a market failure, but a failure to have free markets that has caused many of the problems.