Obamacare: "Major Promises Have Been Broken"

Obamacare: "Major Promises Have Been Broken"
By Kevin Glass
3/17/2011

The one-year anniversary of the passage of Obamacare is coming up, and the GOP is taking the occasion to remind the country exactly what the legislative monstrosity has in store over the next few years. Senator John Barrasso, one of the few actual doctors in Congress, has been a leading voice in criticizing the law and has labeled his stumping against it as his "second opinion."

Sen. Barrasso held a conference call with conservative bloggers yesterday afternoon on the topic of Obamacare implementation. He discussed the fraudulent accounting, waiver handouts, and the broken pledges from President Obama. "Major promises that the President made have all been broken," Barrasso said.

"People want the care they need from the doctors they want at prices they can afford. And the health care law doesn't give people that assurance," he said. Barrasso also brought up his opt-out plan, co-authored with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), that would allow states to opt-out of major provisions of Obamacare in order to develop and innovate their own health care plans.

This contrasts with a competing opt-out plan, offered by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.) and endorsed by President Obama, that allows state opt-outs in 2014 under certain very stringent conditions.

As noted by health policy analyst Michael Cannon at the Cato Institute, Wyden-Brown's overbearing requirements for a state opt-out mean that individual states would have to adopt their own version of Obamacare, or something even more extreme like a single-payer system.

Barrasso championed his competing opt-out plan, which would be a key victory in the fight against the health care law's burdensome regulations without requiring that states basically adopt their own mini-Obamacare.

As Obamacare's one-year anniversary approaches, Senator Barrasso reminded the conservative bloggers that hope is still there. "Today, you still have a majority of Americans who want it repealed, and the intensity of those that don't like the health care law is much stronger than the intensity of the people who do like it."