Graves: Obamacare is a broken law built on broken promises

(From Sixth District Congressman Sam Graves)

The federal government was never meant to control our nation’s healthcare system. To no one’s surprise, it’s completely failing at the job.

Plain and simple, Obamacare is collapsing. It’s a broken law built on broken promises, bad policies, and distorted realities.

Most agree that all Americans should be able to get affordable coverage without going bankrupt. But we can do that without destroying the healthcare system for everybody else. Unfortunately, destroying the system is exactly what Obamacare is doing.

Consider this: the average American’s premium is going up 25% in 2017. In Missouri it’s even worse, with premiums this year increasing by an average of 28%.

When healthcare costs go up, fewer and fewer healthy people buy coverage. And when fewer healthy people buy coverage, insurance companies that can't compete in the free market are forced to pull out of the marketplace entirely.

As a result, over 80% of counties in Missouri have just one provider offering healthcare coverage in their area. These monopolies allow costs to shoot up, and the cycle continues – a cycle that is quickly leading to the complete collapse of Obamacare.

Unfortunately, if Republicans don’t act, the worst is yet to come. There are multiple actions we will take with the White House in the coming weeks to get rid of Obamacare. But the process of repeal and replace must be executed through multiple avenues, including a comprehensive repeal bill, actions taken at the Department of Health & Human Services, and individual laws that replace specific failed policies within Obamacare.

Unlike Nancy Pelosi and her liberal allies, we’re not going to rush this process through Congress in the middle of the night. And we’re going to read and know what’s in each bill before we pass them – not the other way around.

Ultimately, our goal is to take power out of the hands of bureaucrats in Washington, returning healthcare decisions to Americans and their doctors – and eliminating the market distortions and monopolies that have made healthcare coverage unaffordable for too many Americans.

The Obamacare experiment failed. And the law is eroding. House Republicans will ensure there is a stable transition from one plan to the next, but it’s clear to everyone that the status quo is not working. A repeal bill is one step in this process, but with the law collapsing by the day, there is simply no other option than to fully repeal and replace Obamacare.