AAPS Doctors Urge Donald Trump to End the ObamaCare Individual Mandate and Subsidies Immediately, and Encourage Competition
TUCSON, Ariz., Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Donald Trump's biggest campaign promise was to get rid of Obamacare, officially misnamed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Soaring premiums under ObamaCare are harming individuals and families and depressing our economy. The sooner ObamaCare is repealed, the better, states the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS).
President-elect Trump need not wait for Congress, AAPS points out. On his first day in office, Trump can order the IRS not to impose or enforce any penalties against individuals for not purchasing insurance.
"President-elect Trump would not want anyone to be forced to stay in a particular hotel, and Trump rightly opposes forcing Americans to purchase health insurance," observes Jane M. Orient, M.D., executive director of AAPS. "He should end the individual mandate on the first day of his presidency."
"Insurance is by definition voluntary," she continued, "and it is not voluntary if people are forced to buy it at prices far higher than justified by their own risk." She also notes that compelling people to purchase an inferior product they do not want causes prices to increase.
"The fundamental laws of economics cannot be violated for long," states AAPS president Michael J. A. Robb, M.D.
In addition, President-elect Trump should immediately end the taxpayer-funded subsidies on the health care exchanges, which Congress never authorized and the federal district court for D.C. held to be unlawful. Stopping the illegal flow of those subsidies to big insurers would enable free-market and charitable solutions to emerge.
"ObamaCare is already so costly that most people might well be better off uninsured," observes Dr. Orient. "Most of the care they need costs less than their deductible, and they don't have the money because they spent it on premiums."
"You might have coverage, but the insurer might deny you care, or it might not be available in network," she adds.
Vanishing competition in the insurance market, as the biggest insurers continue to merge with each other, is contributing to the runaway cost of insurance, she states. Trump should indicate that he is going to investigate and stop the anti-competitive conduct of insurance companies in order to ensure that their restraint of trade ceases.
As for the issue of pre-existing conditions, it is best for young adults to buy a guaranteed-renewable policy that they will own, before developing a pre-existing condition, rather than prolonging their period of dependency on their parents, Dr. Orient suggests.
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."
SOURCE Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)
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