DALLAS – Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) resident scholar Merrill Matthews, Ph.D. released the following statement in reaction to today’s landmark vote by the House of Representatives to repeal Obamacare.
“Today Republicans took an important step towards rolling back President Obama's and Democrats' decades-long quest for a government-run single-payer healthcare system,” said Matthews.
“The compromise Republican health care bill is a federalist approach and is significantly better than the original version,” he said. “This bill allows states to once again create functioning health insurance markets—as long as the state chooses to.”
Matthews explains the legislation allows states to create functioning health insurance markets by opting out of most of Obamacare’s onerous regulations, and enabling individuals who want to buy an affordable policy in the individual market to have a path to do so. “This approach also would allow those states that scorn free markets and free individuals—e.g., New Jersey, New York, Vermont, California, etc.—to continue with their health insurance death spiral,” he said.