Tea Party memo outlines strategies for PPACA repeal-replace

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Six Key Strategies

1. Focus on reducing costs and expanding freedom, not on expanding coverage. Don’t focus on “how many people are covered.” That criterion puts us in a policy box that leads to more coercion. By the way, despite the individual mandate, Obamacare doesn’t achieve (and didn’t really try to achieve) universal coverage. And neither should we.

2. Make federal health care programs voluntary. The essence of federal health “insurance” programs like Obamacare and Medicare is coercion, because these programs are structured like monopolies that restrict choice and competition. The essence of a patient-centered approach is individual freedom and choice – the antithesis of monopoly.

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3. Defend true insurance and expand the individual market. True insurance, which exists to help people pool risks, should be kept distinct in our minds from group “insurance,” which is really a form of pre-paid benefits. With true (individual) insurance, prices need to vary according to risk and purchasers need to plan ahead.

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4. Reduce reliance on third-party payment. ... The main cause of excessive medical inflation ... is the fact that most Americans are over-insured. The reason most Americans are over-insured lies in the big federal health care subsidies: Medicare, Medicaid, and the tax code subsidy for employer-sponsored health plans ... Health care costs would be lower, if more patients were spending their own money.

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5. Convert federal health care subsidies into defined contributions. ... Congress should convert Medicare, Medicaid, and the tax code subsidy for employer-sponsored health benefits into defined contributions to individuals (in the form of tax credits or vouchers), or defined contributions to the states (in the form of block grants) ... by putting patients in charge of the dollars [this] forces the health care industry ... to operate efficiently in order to serve patients.

6. Stay on offense. Every day Washington talks about health care is a good day for reformers.

http://www.politico.com/static/PPM195_110216_freedomworks_memo.html

[Saddle Bronc 124]

please expand the acronym PPACA

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please expand the acronym PPACA

If you don't know what the PPACA is, then this thread isn't for you.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

If you don't know what the PPACA is, then this thread isn't for you.

[mawilson 2,133]

Can you stop calling it peepaca? It sounds like a domesticated cud-chewing mammal covered in urine.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Can you stop calling it peepaca? It sounds like a domesticated cud-chewing mammal covered in urine.