House Republicans need to do more than just vote to repeal portions of Obamacare and instead push to make sure the healthcare law is “ripped up by the roots” and replaced with a cheaper, more effective alternative, Rep. Paul Broun, told Newsmax.
“What we need to do though is repeal the whole law because it's a destroyer. It's going to destroy the quality of healthcare in America. It's destroying the doctor-patient relationship. It's going to short budgets from family budgets all the way up to the federal budget,” the Georgia Republican said in an exclusive interview with Newsmax.
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“We must pull it out by the roots and replace it with something that makes sense — something that will make sure that patients make decisions along with their doctors and Obamacare is not going to do that,” said Broun, a doctor who practiced family medicine.
“We need to replace it with something that's going to lower the cost of healthcare where Obamacare's already running up the cost of insurance premiums for everybody,” he said.
Broun said he has come up with his own healthcare plan based on his experience as a doctor, and he is “probably” introducing it as a legislative proposal this week.
“My Patient Option Act would repeal Obamacare and put in place policy that's market-based, patient-centered, and it would actually lower the cost, make healthcare cheaper for everybody. It would provide coverage for all Americans and save Medicare from going broke,” Broun insisted.
“It's the only solution that gets the federal government out from the middle between doctors and patients. It is the only health insurance plan that's going to literally lower the cost and put patients in charge,” he said.
Broun, who is running in the 2014 race to replace retiring Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss, faulted both Democrats and Republicans for failing to turn to family doctors like himself for guidance on healthcare reform.
“I'm a family doctor and I've been dealing with healthcare cost issues with my patients. That's what family doctors do, as opposed to any other specialty. We deal with the financial aspects of healthcare so it looks to me that leadership on both sides of the aisle would have looked to doctors for suggestions but they have not,” Broun said.
If Obamacare goes forward, Broun predicted widespread layoffs by employers who can’t afford to provide health insurance, or get slapped with federal fines. And in the end, he said fewer Americans would end up with health insurance provided by their workplace.
“It's certainly going to be less people that are going to be on health insurance provided by their employer. We're going to have a lot of people who cannot afford to get into federal exchanges in spite of the fines, our taxes, whatever you want to call them that are going to be placed upon them,” Broun said.
He said that Obamacare will “cause a tremendous upheaval within the American population all across this land and that's the reason Barack Obama has delayed implementation, because he knew that there would be a lot of pushback towards him and Democrats in this next year's election and he's pushed it off until Jan. 15 so that the Democrats don’t suffer electorally in this next year's election because Obamacare is a destroyer and it would destroy the chances of the Democrats being re-elected if it stayed in place.”
On immigration reform, Broun said the chances of passing measures through the House won’t be improved even if Obama taps a popular choice, like New York Police commissioner Ray Kelly or retired Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, to succeed Janet Napolitano.
“I don’t think whoever he picks is going to help conservatives vote for amnesty, and that's what he's promoting, and I will not vote for amnesty for anybody,” Broun said.
“We’ve got big problems across the board with legal immigration as well as 11 million-plus illegal aliens here in this country. They're not immigrants. They're illegal aliens. They're lawbreakers. And we've got to find some solutions that make sense. But until we secure the border and actually have it secured, nothing else matters. We've got to start enforcing the laws,” Broun said.
“The only new law I'd like to see pass is one to make English the official language of America. But beyond that, we must secure the border. Until we do that, nothing else matters,” he added.
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