“Every American should have the right to decide not to participate in ObamaCare: If you like ObamaCare and its subsidies, you can keep it. If you don’t, you are free to buy the health insurance that fits your needs,” writes Phil Gramm in the WSJ.
Republicans need to craft a simple bill that is easy to understand and defend, broadly popular, and difficult to attack. The bill needs to guarantee the right of individuals and businesses to opt out of Obamacare and buy the health insurance they choose from any willing seller. Read more here from Phil Gramm, former Republican senator from Texas.
Gramm writes:
By extinguishing coercion, the freedom option would put ObamaCare on the path to extinction. Without the ability to exploit the young and healthy, the Affordable Care Act will collapse under its own funding weight, all but guaranteeing a 2017 revision of the entire law.
Whether in large states like Florida and Texas—with 2.5 million and 1.7 million people receiving subsidies through the federal exchange, respectively—or in small states like North Dakota and Iowa—with 26,000 and 70,000 recipients—Republican governors should have the political high ground in demanding that their citizens be given the right to opt out of ObamaCare.
Restoring this freedom would be what Republicans demand for setting up state exchanges or supporting the restoration of federal-exchange subsidies. Public opinion would strongly favor the Republican position and put pressure on the Obama administration to relent.
Adopting the freedom option will require a level of discipline that Republicans have yet to show in this Congress. It is imperative that the message not be muddled with other amendments that Democrats and Mr. Obama could use as an excuse for opposing it. The leadership that will be required in this effort will test the courage of a Republican congressional majority and Republican governors across the country; victory will require a determination to govern. The alternative will almost certainly be a long or a short path to capitulation.
Debbie Young
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