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Monday, January 16, 2017

LYNN BERGMAN: BOTTOM LINE REQUIREMENTS OF OBAMACARE REPEAL

Conservatives must understand that, while ongoing FBI investigations regarding both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will be interesting to Republicans, unsettling for Democrats, and will contribute to historical clarity, these investigations do not threaten the conservative agenda of either congress or the executive branch. Even if Trump, at any time in his tenure as our President, were to become the first sitting President to be successfully impeached, Vice President Pence is so steadfastly conservative and so morally and ethically superior that the outlook for the conservative agenda would likely be improved, not lessened.

We became aware, during the primaries, how much leaders elected as part of the tea party movement were insuring that the conservative elements within our Republican party would prevail in gaining control of the House and Senate. The number of debates was critical in sending our superior conservative message to voters.

When conservatives look back on this election a decade from now, we will realize how LUCKY we were that a candidate as weak as Clinton was nominated by Democrats and how GRATEFUL we are that a “pit bull” like Donald Trump was so successful in convincing just enough voters that almost any Republican, even an inexperienced “bull-in-a-china-closet”, would be better than a Clinton monarchy. (How many Americans considered the repercussions of Bill Clinton returning to the White House?)

The year 2017 promises to be an exceptional one for limited government and the rule of law. It will be important that the Affordable Care Act be FULLY REPEALED first, and be replaced with free market solutions to the problems that ACA has only exacerbated because of its government interference in the marketplace and intrusion between doctor and patient.

Conservatives, do not be afraid to demand the following, regarding replacement, from your elected representatives and senators:

1. A minimal level of tort reform must be required as a condition within each state for which continued expansion of medicaid is desired. If you do not see significant mandates for state tort reform action in the replacement bill, conservatives will have to redouble our efforts to replace Republicrats with Non-lawyer Americans throughout the land in future elections.

2. Health insurance policies must be fully transportable across state lines.

3. Health insurance must be purchased in such an expanded free marketplace with extreme penalties for insurance companies that do not offer “high-risk-pool' insurance for persons with pre-existing conditions in the states they provide coverage.

4. The only subsidies that should be given must be to hospitals, clinics and doctors for partial reimbursement of costs incurred due to lack of payment of bills by the uninsured. To the extent that such costs increase in the future due to inflation, the percent reimbursements must be reduced annually to control such costs. Responsible Americans have, for decades, paid for the irresponsible non-insured through higher insurance premiums; a taxpayer-funded solution to the non-insured will result in lower insurance premiums and, importantly, transparent identification of the number of non-insured in every congressional district, so further measures can be taken to improve insurance participation.

5. Veterans of foreign wars must be given full payment for their medical costs at the nearest clinic or hospital of their doctor's choosing. Individual Veterans Administration facilities must be transitioned out of business within a decade following any annual increase (allowing for inflation) in per-patient costs. Full payment of lifetime medical costs at ANY medical facility should have been offered to veterans at the time that an all-volunteer military was initiated.

 

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