Curing the pre-existing conditions of Obamacare
Thomas P. Miller, James C. Capretta | The American
September 10, 2012

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Families USA, an advocacy group closely aligned with the Obama administration, recently claimed that 25 percent of non-elderly Americans, or 65 million people, suffer from a pre-existing condition that would threaten the security of their health insurance if it were not for ObamaCare’s protections.

This preposterous claim fits a pattern. ObamaCare’s apologists have been trying for three years to divert the public’s attention away from the trillion-dollar entitlement expansion, tax hike, and power grab by the federal government that ObamaCare represents. The emphasis on pre-existing conditions is aimed at creating the false impression that the only way to cover anyone who might become seriously ill is with ObamaCare’s heavy-handed and government-centric requirements.

This is nonsense. The country does not need ObamaCare to solve the relatively limited problem of restrictive insurance coverage for pre-existing health conditions. Nonetheless, it remains crucial for ObamaCare’s opponents to embrace a sensible fix. Apparent lack of a clear alternative should not provide an excuse for retaining the entirety of the ObamaCare edifice.

Read the full text in The American.

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About the Author

 

Thomas P.
Miller
  • Thomas Miller is a former senior health economist for the Joint Economic Committee (JEC). He studies health care policy and regulation. A former trial attorney, journalist, and sports broadcaster, Mr. Miller is the co-author of Why ObamaCare Is Wrong For America (HarperCollins 2011) and heads AEI's "Beyond Repeal & Replace" health reform project. He has testified before Congress on issues including the uninsured, health care costs, Medicare prescription drug benefits, health insurance tax credits, genetic information, Social Security, and federal reinsurance of catastrophic events. While at the JEC, he organized a number of hearings that focused on reforms in private health care markets, such as information transparency and consumer-driven health care.
  • Phone: 202-862-5886
    Email: tmiller@aei.org

  • Assistant Info

    Name: Catherine Griffin
    Phone: 202-862-5920
    Email: catherine.griffin@aei.org
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James C.
Capretta

  • James Capretta has spent more than two decades studying American health care policy. As an associate director at the White House's Office of Management and Budget from 2001 to 2004, he was responsible for all health care, Social Security and welfare issues. Earlier, he served as a senior health policy analyst at the U.S. Senate Budget Committee and at the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means. Capretta is also concurrently a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. At AEI, he will be researching how to replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (best known as Obamacare) with a less expensive reform plan to provide effective and secure health insurance for working-age Americans and their families.

  • Email: James.Capretta@aei.org

  • Assistant Info

    Name: Catherine Griffin
    Phone: 202-862-5920
    Email: catherine.griffin@aei.org
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