Health Insurance 4 Everyone Blog

The repeal-and-replace argument has been a central line of attack in the GOP’s anti-Obama assault, both on the presidential campaign trail and on Capitol Hill.  The new Republican-led House took a symbolic vote to repeal the law in January. But since then, nothing has happened. The House hasn’t passed anything new to take its place.

On the campaign trail, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney say they want to repeal the law but neither has mentioned an alternative.  To replace it, they have reused several ideas from 2008 GOP nominee John McCain. Instead of a mandate to buy insurance, the two current front-runners would offer ways to make insurance cheaper: new tax credits, new bargains on policies from out-of-state.

These ideas might not work as advertised and they would only be the beginning of a true “replacement” for Obama’s law.  Republicans’ struggle over health care could be a political liability and they undoubtedly will be blasted by critics for breaking a promise.  If the GOP can repeal the law, it would reopen the ugliest political fight of the past five years.

Obama’s health-care law stretches over hundreds of pages, making a sweeping attempt to solve two long-standing problems. One was the millions of uninsured people. The other was the fast-rising cost of medical care.  To address the first, the law simply mandated that every American buy health insurance. If not, people could face a fine of $695 or more. To address the second, the bill drives hospitals, especially those treating Medicare patients, toward more efficient treatments.

Last fall, the GOP won a whopping 63 new House seats. This year, Republicans are still campaigning to repeal the law, which a recent poll showed is viewed unfavorably by 44% of Americans and favorably by only 37%.

Some Republican members have drafted their own plans. One would let people take their health insurance with them from job to job. Another limits the damages handed out in malpractice suits. Another would let people get insurance through private associations, not just their employers.  But none of these have been passed.

One shared idea, borrowed from McCain, is instead of fining people who don’t buy insurance, they would reward tax breaks to those who do.  The idea is if insurance is cheap enough, the uninsured will buy a policy without being forced to.  For those who still remain uninsured, Romney would allot each state a pool of taxpayer money to provide for their care.

Gingrich has another solution, he envisions a system in which the government puts aside the tax breaks that a particular uninsured person would have received. The taxpayer money would then be sent to his or her local community to pay the doctor bills if the person gets sick.

While the front runners claim they’ll repeal the law, neither has talked about a full plan to replace it.  Bits and pieces of ideas, some borrowed-some not have been mentioned but we’ve yet to see what they would replace Obama-care with if they’re elected.