Arizona’s senior senator John McCain, who campaigned vigorously on a promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or ObamaCare), is now a hero of the Democrats for his one-man blockade of the Republicans’ latest effort to make slight modifications in ACA, stated the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS).
“He is making the process the issue, rather than the bill itself,” observed executive director, Jane M. Orient, M.D. According to the Washington Post, “McCain blasted out a news release on Friday saying he’d consider supporting legislation had it undergone extensive hearings, debate and amendments—but noting that it hasn’t.”
“We have ObamaCare itself because it was rammed through without a single Republican vote, bypassing regular order,” Dr. Orient pointed out. “So if we want to use regular order to reform the system, we need to repeal ACA in its entirety, then immediately start a process for replacing or restoring any parts that have bipartisan support, through the regular order of hearings and debate,” she suggested.
“To avoid disrupting current arrangements, we could leave subsidies in place for one year—the legal ones, not the illegal ones now before the court,” she continued. “But repeal of the federal insurance mandates would allow the growth of affordable free-market replacements.”
“Democrats facing re-election could explain to their constituents why they supported the failing ObamaCare monster, or why they were not in favor of allowing Americans to choose their own medical financing arrangements,” she said.
“What we need is competition in the private sector to provide better medical care and affordable financing arrangements,” Dr. Orient stated. “What we are getting in Congress is States fighting over Medicaid money, and insurers fighting to keep their special preferences—for example, not allowing untaxed Health Savings Account (HSA) dollars to pay for care without insurers’ getting their cut.”
“How about a McCain-Paul repeal now/replace later bill?”
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a national organization representing physicians in virtually all specialties and every state. Founded in 1943, AAPS has the motto “omnia pro aegroto,” which means “all for the patient.”
