By Human Events
Republican Senators Richard Burr (NC), Tom Coburn (OK), and Orrin Hatch (UT) released their proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare yesterday, and it is right on target. Indeed, the plan, for which the senators personally credited and thanked the author, incorporates nine of the 10 reform points suggested by Merrill Matthews’ piece for Human Events published Monday.
As the three senators wrote in a Fox News op/ed describing their plan, “We agree that the pre-ObamaCare status quo was unsustainable and unacceptable. The problem is that the law failed to fix most of the problems in health care, and made many even worse.” In fact, Obamacare doubled down on all of the current problems, only making the system worse—and a lot more expensive.
The senators allude to the primary difference between conservatives and liberals on health care reform: Liberals believe individuals cannot be trusted to make good decisions in the health care marketplace; conservatives think they can.
A few of Matthews’ principles, found here, include establishing tax fairness, expanding consumer-driven options, privatizing Medicare, and permitting cross-state health insurance purchases.
According to Matthews, real health care reform is about who you trust to make your health care decisions. Polls have repeatedly shown the public does not trust President Obama or his plan. The conservative solution is to empower individuals, not bureaucrats or health insurance companies. “We trust the choices of individual patients and consumers, not paternalistic bureaucrats.” To accomplish this, it is necessary to give individuals more control over their health care dollars.
The senators released the following press release, outlining their proposed plan.