Mitt Romney: Repeal Obamacare to Make Way for Real Healthcare Reform

About Mitt Romney:

Mitt Romney is a former Massachusetts governor and the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

Summarizing the failures of President Barack Obama's 2,700-page healthcare bill in 400 words is no simple task. But here are some of the reasons why it is fatally flawed—and why it must be repealed.

For starters, the law is driving up costs. President Obama promised to reduce annual premiums by $2,500 per family, but those premiums have actually risen by $2,393, and Obamacare is expected to force them even higher.

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Those costs don't even tell the whole story. There is a much bigger price tag—and that's what Obamacare is doing to our economy. The law is fiscally reckless and will only add to our nearly $16 trillion in debt. Worse still, it fails to address the long-term drivers of our debt crisis: the rapidly spiraling costs generated by entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid. The law is also undermining our economic recovery. Its complexity is causing tremendous uncertainty, and in the coming years, it will raise more than $500 billion in taxes. That's a toxic combination that harms investment and job creation. In fact, in one recent survey, 75 percent of small businesses said Obamacare is making it harder for them to hire.

As if Obamacare's fiscal flaws aren't enough, the president has also broken his promise that "if you have insurance that you like, then you will be able to keep that insurance." Instead, his law will force millions of Americans, including seniors, to lose the insurance coverage they have. And Obamacare puts the federal government between patients and their physicians—and empowers bureaucrats to make our healthcare decisions. Take the "Independent Payment Advisory Board" as an example. Through it, 15 unelected bureaucrats will effectively be placed in charge of Medicare—able to make cuts without consent from Congress or those who have paid into the system and rely upon it for their medical care.

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Everyone agrees that our healthcare system faces significant challenges. The cost of coverage is too high and access to care is too low. But Obamacare does not solve those problems; it will only make them worse. The law must be repealed so that real reform—carried out in a transparent manner, consistent with the priorities of the American people, and capable of solving our healthcare challenges—can finally begin.

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Tags:

economy,

Barack Obama,

healthcare