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Seizing on the public's continued anxiety over the ObamaCare rollout, a trio of Republican senators on Monday unveiled a sweeping alternative proposal they say would gut the law's mandates and taxes while preserving consumer protections. Sens. Orrin Hatch, of Utah; Tom Coburn, of Oklahoma; and Richard Burr, of North Carolina, announced their plan one day before President Obama delivers his State of the Union address. It is his first such address since the launch of the state and federal health care exchanges.
The GOP proposal, dubbed the Patient Choice, Affordability, Responsibility and Empowerment Act, would repeal the president's marquee legislative achievement while instituting new reforms the senators say would give states and individuals more flexibility and purchasing power.
"Americans deserve a real alternative, and a way out," Coburn said.
Under the plan, insurances companies would not be able to impose lifetime limits on patients and would be required to allow dependent coverage up to the age of 26, as ObamaCare currently does. The Republican proposal would address the issue of pre-existing conditions by creating a new "continuous coverage" standard that would prevent any individual moving from one insurance plan to another from being denied on the basis of a pre-existing condition so long as that individual was continuously enrolled in a health plan.
The requirements on individuals to buy insurance, and on mid-sized and large businesses to provide it, would be repealed.
Senate aides describing the proposal acknowledged there's little chance of movement in the current Congress, where Democrats control the Senate and have resisted all Republican-led House attempts to repeal or chip away at ObamaCare. Still, the aides said they hope continued public dissatisfaction with the way the law is being implemented might shore up the efforts of Hatch, Coburn and Burr. A new Associated Press-GfK poll shows that while negative perceptions of the new exchanges have eased, 66 percent of Americans say the rollout is not going well.
Senate Republicans pitch ObamaCare alternative on eve of presidential address | Fox News
We have heard since this law was first proposed in 2009, that Republicans have no alternatives. To some extent that is true, not in that Repubs didn't offer anything, indeed there were several plans put forth only to be set out there and blocked by Harry Reid, and then denounced as 'nothing to offer'....Well, here we go with another one. Will democrats again be the party of disingenuousness, and lie that nothing was put forward? Here are some key points of the latest proposal...
To help consumers buying coverage on their own or through a small business, we take a range of steps.
- We allow small businesses to band together for coverage – like large corporations do – to negotiate a better deal for health coverage.
- We scrap all of ObamaCare’s rating changes and expensive mandates.
- We offer individuals who are uninsured, self-employed, or working at a small business a tax credit for health coverage to help them be able to buy a plan and keep it.
- We reform – but do not expand – the broken Medicaid entitlement. Too often Medicaid proves the axiom that access to a government health care program is not necessarily access to health care.
A Republican plan to replace ObamaCare, cover pre-existing conditions and lower costs | Fox News
It may not be a fix all, but it is a start, and a return to allowing American's to make the choice, not some government official....And further, it is something that American's want a return to, with nearly every measurement polled of the President's performance, from O-care, to trustworthiness Obama's, and democrat governance is coming in with approvals in the high 30s, and disapproval in the near 60% range....