Senators' Plan to Replace Obamacare

Senators Richard Burr (R-NC), Tom Coburn MD (R-OK), and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) unveiled their plan to replace Obamacare. In an op-ed at Fox News, they argue it would:

• scrap Obamacare's rating changes and expensive mandates;
• allow small businesses to band together for coverage — like large corporations do — to negotiate a better deal for health coverage;
• offer individuals who are uninsured, self-employed or working at a small business a tax credit for health coverage;
• reform — but not expand — Medicaid; and
• give states dramatically more flexibility to provide their residents health care without Washington red-tape, micromanagement and uncertainty.

It isn't the free-market health care proposal conservatives would like to see. In his Washington Examiner op-ed, Philip Klein compares and contrasts the Senators' proposal to current Obamacare law, concluding:

Ultimately, the new Coburn-Burr-Hatch plan would not usher in a free market for health insurance in the United States, which would require fully ending the distortion of the tax code and removing far more regulations. What it does do is offer individuals more freedom than now exists under Obamacare.

Though it isn’t likely to become law anytime soon, the proposal provides a useful insight into how Republicans are attempting to grapple with health care policy in a world where Obamacare now represents the status quo.

Read More:

• A Republican Plan to Replace ObamaCare, Cover Pre-Existing Conditions and Lower Costs (Burr, Coburn & Hatch, Fox News, 1/27/14)
• GOP Senators Unveil First Health Care Plan in an Obamacare World (Philip Klein, Washington Examiner, 1/27/14)