So the Republicans have proposed a new bill that is going to start to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) a.k.a. Obama Care. Obamacare made sweeping changes to the healthcare and medical insurance business in this country. Voted along party lines with little or no chance of ever working. Obamacare took healthcare from a historically locally based control, some would say community based system into a federally run and governed bureaucratic nightmare for most of the country.So Obamacare was a fresh bold step that one has to at least say took guts to do. Any time a bill becomes the law it requires adjustments going forward, something that never happened with Obamacare. What did happen were administrative rules that resulted in 30,000+ pages of regulations that cost businesses tens of millions of dollars to comply with. Let’s look at some facts:
- Obamacare passed with no Republican votes in the Senate and Congress in 2009
- Changes needed to be made at the time and the Democratics lost the 60th Democratic vote in the Senate when Sen. Ted Kennedy passed away leaving the bill to be amended through budget reconciliation process at time of passing
- The bill passed into law and was 2700 pages at the time. Lawmakers were given about 24 hours before it was taken to a vote
- Many lawmakers claimed they didn’t even have a chance to read it but several Democrats claimed that they studied the entire thing and it was good for the country
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was quoted as saying ” we have to pass the bill to see what is in it”
- The law took virtually all control from the states and secured regulations to be governed by federal bureaucrats
- Bureaucratic rules and interpretations added another 40,000 plus pages of rules and regulations that departments put into place
- Since it has become law there have been no changes legislatively, but many executive orders, administration rules and many court challenges
So the bottom line is the lawmakers passed a massive change to the nation’s healthcare system in 2009 that took effect and has never been adjusted by lawmakers. Despite the fact that Congress has voted over 32 times to repeal Obamacare there has been no changes in over 6 years. Shouldn’t both sides put their differences a side and do the right thing for American people?
Tim Elenz
Principal
Benefitsage
“Medical insurance is our specialty”
Telenz@Benefitsage.com
800-317-0181 ext. 306
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