US Senator Mike Rounds’ Weekly Column: Repealing Obamacare First Step Toward Replacing it with a Truly Affordable, Patient-Centered Plan

Pat Powers

Repealing Obamacare First Step Toward Replacing it with a Truly Affordable, Patient-Centered Plan
by U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.)

When I ran for Senate, I ran on the promise to do everything I could to repeal and replace the unworkable Affordable Care Act (ACA) and mitigate the damaging effects it was having on South Dakota families, health care providers and small businesses. After two years and a Republican entering the White House eager to work with us, the 115th Congress has finally begun the process of repealing and replacing the ill-advised law.

The Senate took the first steps recently by passing a repeal resolution, a necessary component that will allow us to repeal the law later this year by a simple majority vote. Meanwhile, the Senate continues to work on a replacement that is affordable, market-driven and truly centered around the patient. These are the fundamental principles that Obamacare has failed to deliver to the American people.

As the repeal timeline is established, there will be a transition period before its replacement is fully implemented. We recognize the need to protect healthcare benefits during this transition. There is agreement that continuation of coverage is an important part of any replacement plan. We anticipate that there will be many options made available for health care design and coverages through this replacement legislation. However, all will include a guaranteed renewal of coverage, portability of coverage and children remaining on their families’ plans until the age of 26. 

Since the partisan law was enacted seven years ago, Americans have been painfully aware of its shortcomings. Supporters of the law promised that premiums would go down. Instead, they continue to skyrocket, increasing 37 percent in South Dakota this year alone. Supporters also promised that those who liked their coverage could keep it, yet since the ACA was enacted nearly 5 million Americans lost the health care plans they enjoyed.

Americans are also left with fewer health care options when seeking coverage. Because insurers are losing so much money on Obamacare, many have left the marketplace altogether. Over half of the Obamacare co-ops have already failed. South Dakota is one of nine states which have only two health care providers offering insurance plans on the exchange. Five more states have only one provider in their state, a dramatic decrease from the pre-Obamacare era. 

Countless South Dakotans have contacted my office to share their problems with Obamacare. One father of three from Rapid City wrote me recently to explain that his family’s premium was rising 357 percent for 2017. “I do not know what my next year will bring,” he wrote, “but I do know that I will likely be unable to afford my premiums or my needed health care.”

Another gentleman, from Sioux Falls, is facing a 47 percent increase in his premium this year, on top of an increase in copays and the deductible. A South Dakota veteran also wrote asking Congress to provide Obamacare relief to small business owners after seeing his premium more than double from $800 a month to more than $1,600 between 2014 and 2016. Hard-working, middle-class South Dakotans “are falling through the cracks,” he pleaded. I couldn’t agree more.

Since the law was being debated in 2009, I have warned that Obamacare is unaffordable and unsustainable, and that it would eventually crumble under its own weight. That is what we are seeing today, and that is why the 115th Congress acted swiftly to begin the process to repeal it. As we continue the march toward repeal, we will also work on a replacement that is truly affordable, patient-centered and market-based.

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14 thoughts on “US Senator Mike Rounds’ Weekly Column: Repealing Obamacare First Step Toward Replacing it with a Truly Affordable, Patient-Centered Plan”

    2. Tell me why? Tell me what is going to happen to 20,000,000 people that will not be insured
      …Tell me what is going to take its place?

      1. All those policies are truly awful, with high deductibles and premiums and narrow acceptance. Instead those 20 million will have generous credits to buy insurance nationwide — a market that will quickly develop rational pricing and real choice.

        1. When? “All those policies are truly awful, with high deductibles and premiums ?– Show me— What were insurance rates doing 6 years ago? Has the cost of private insurance risen or fallen?

        2. Polls show those using ACA are overwhelmingly pleased with it………why are whining for them?

          1. Those using ACA get subsidies to pay for their insurance; why would they complain??? The rest of us have to pay our own premiums and deductibles, plus our tax dollars are paying for the ACA subsidies; just what is fair about that??? And how is it fair that a man’s insurance plan must include maternity care and a woman’s plan must cover prostate issues??? Get back to an insurance plan that truly lowers costs of both insurance and healthcare and that does not force a person to pay for services he/she does not need.

            I am sure that some of those ACA covered are not happy with their plans either as many of the doctors they would want to see refuse to accept ACA. Another lie, just like you can keep your doctor, your plan, and your costs will decrease by $2500 a year – remember those???!

          2. Quick reply to both your questions…

            1. Anecdotally, my health insurance plan premium has nearly doubled in the past six years, even as I’ve maxed out my deductible. Kept my doc, but he’ll soon retire and I’ll have the pleasure of trying to find a new one that accepts Medicare. On a national scale — and what’s played out in South Dakota, as well — the trend is huge losses for insurance companies because they’re required to “insure” people who wait to buy insurance only after they get sick. All the state exchanges operate only with upside-down balance sheets. And docs and hospitals are learning how to manage care around tens of thousands of bureaucratic boxes to check. Yeah, Obamacare is working so well.

            2. Of course the subsidized people like it — they’re getting something for nothing at my expense! And the 20 million figure is bogus, as it includes Medicaid signups. Oh, and there are still 30 million people with no insurance, and who have no interest in buying any.

            (drops mic)

            1. “only a restoration of stable contracts that truly are insurance, not silly prepaid plans.”— What were insurance prices doing for years before the ACA?

              “they’re getting something for nothing at my expense!”– Who do you think paid for those that were uninsured?

              ” they’re getting something for nothing at my expense!”– We paid full coverage out of pocket, with negotiated prices through the insurance Co.( now Medicare) the cost to that Insurance Co.runs 1/4–1/ 3 less than would be billed to those without insurance… who is getting something for nothing.?. That uninsured higher cost is what is passed on to everybody when the uninsured can NOT pay the unrealistically high prices and skyrockets the price for everybody paying for insurance—- You have no problem with that? You actually think subsidies are more expensive than your precious tax penny paying for illnesses and injuries at the inflated prices charged to the uninsured?

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    1. Health insurance companies had 80 percent approval from their customers prior to Obamacare — an extraordinary rate that indicated nothing needed fixed in the first place. But Obama and the Dems lied to pass Obamacare, which the public has never liked, never topping 50 percent approval to my knowledge. There’s no need for a “replacement,” only a restoration of stable contracts that truly are insurance, not silly prepaid plans.

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