New rep: Repealing ‘Obamacare’ a top priority

That includes this area’s two new freshman Republican congressmen, U.S. Reps. Bill Johnson, R-Poland, of Ohio’s 6th District, and Bob Gibbs, R-Lakeville, of Ohio’s 18th District. As their first order of business, the GOP majority set Jan. 12 as their date to vote on a repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as the health-care reform bill or “Obamacare.”

That vote has been postponed indefinitely following the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the murder of several others in Tucson, Ariz., on Saturday.

When the vote does take place, with a 242-member majority Republicans expect to pass the repeal easily in the House. But such an effort faces a much steeper challenge in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Moreover, it’s highly unlikely that President Obama himself would ever sign off on such an effort. Nevertheless, Republicans campaigned largely on seeking such a repeal. Their real hopes for wholesale or piecemeal repeal apparently lie with the courts and state governments.

Johnson not only campaigned on “repeal and replace,” calling it a top priority, but he also went so far as to turn down congressional health coverage, although as a veteran Johnson already receives a military health plan from the Veterans Administration.

On Friday, Johnson said that he did campaign hard against what he called the “government takeover of health care.” He said the law should be reversed and replaced with patent-centered, private-sector solutions that make health care more cost-effective, as well as more affordable and more accessible for Americans.

“When you put health care back in the hands of the patient and their doctor, I think you’re going to see health-care costs go down,” he said. “My focus has been on incentivizing Americans to pursue health-savings accounts so that they can assume some of the cost of their own routine health care themselves with pre-tax dollars.” He said money in such an account could be used to purchase a more catastrophic insurance policy that covers things such as heart attacks and cancer.

Johnson also promoted tort reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits that he said are driving up costs to health-care providers such as malpractice insurance. He said the lawsuits also drive practitioners out of the industry.

“That’s going to bring the cost of health care down because practitioners will be able to run their operations more effectively and efficiently, and that’s going to pass along to the consumer,” he said.

Johnson said he also supports making health insurance portable from state to state and job to job. “When you put that competition in play, health-care insurance providers are going to suddenly not have a captive audience, and that’s going to drive the cost of health care down, and therefore also make it more affordable and accessible,” he said.

Johnson was asked how insurance should be regulated if it becomes portable across state lines, considering it is currently regulated by each individual state. He asserted that while he favors portability, the federal government should stay out of it.

“I think the states are far more qualified to do that kind of self-regulation than the federal government is,” he said. “You’ll find, on this and other issues, that I’m in favor of less regulation from the federal government, certainly not more.”

He said he believes states could still be in charge of regulation even if insurance coverage is made to be portable across state lines, although he didn’t explain how.

Cathy Levine, executive director of the Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio, said Friday that the Affordable Care Act is already helping a lot of Ohioans who would not be helped otherwise to get affordable health care. “The act is going to make quality health care more affordable for more than 1 million Ohioans and 32 million Americans who will be newly eligible for insurance,” she said, pointing out that small businesses will also receive help to provide insurance for employees.

She noted that health insurance companies have reported notable increases in new customers from small businesses due to a provision in the law that gives a tax credit to companies with fewer than 25 employees and moderate-to-low pay scales to help offset the cost of providing benefits.

“The ACA is already giving tax cuts to 127,000 small businesses,” she said. “Half of small business in Ohio don’t offer health coverage, and the number-one reason is cost.”

She said repealing this law will hurt these small businesses, take away protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and hurt young adults who, under the new law, can stay on their parents’ plans until age 26.

Making health insurance portable, Levine said, would do nothing to protect those who are shut out of the insurance market because of pre-existing conditions. She added that the bill’s elimination of lifetime caps lets consumers rest assured that their coverage won’t be dropped if they get a catastrophic illness.

“This is providing peace of mind to virtually all of us that no matter what happens, affordable, quality health care will be there for us,” she said. “I’m not saying the law is perfect, but it does address real problems and provides real solutions for people.”

Levine compared the law to a three-legged stool that, one, provides subsidies for people who can’t afford insurance; two, prohibits denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions; and, three, requires people to have coverage. Some of the provisions don’t go into effect for two or three years. “So you can’t just get rid of it and then pass the pieces you like,” she said. “By creating cheaper insurance for people who are already healthy, that doesn’t help anybody who dares to get sick or injured.”