Tiberi: Obamacare must be repealed, replaced with patient-centered reforms

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) must be repealed and replaced with patient-centered reforms that promote high quality and affordable care, U.S. Rep. Pat Tiberi (R-OH) wrote in a recent USA Today op-ed.

Tiberi, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, wrote that ACA’s taxes on employers, individuals, providers and innovators are driving up costs and limiting choices.

“It is proof that putting government at the center of care just doesn’t work,” Tiberi wrote. “That is why Republicans will move to eliminate these burdensome government mandates and give people the freedom to choose the care that fits their needs.”

“To implement these reforms, we will take a deliberate, step-by-step approach to deliver solutions that will give more flexibility to states, eliminate the onerous tax hikes in Obamacare and make health insurance portable so that patients and families, not the federal government, can be in charge of their own care,” Tiberi said.

House Republicans unveiled the fifth pillar of their A Better Way agenda to fix health care in June. The plan would give consumers more health care choices at a lower cost and would provide protections so individuals can’t have coverage taken away regardless of income or medical condition.

Recent reports show that one in five customers using Healthcare.gov only have one insurer to purchase coverage from and that consumers in some parts of the country may face major rate hikes.

“I know firsthand the uncertainty and anxiety families feel, especially for the more than 20,000 people who woke up one day with no coverage of their own because Obamacare’s co-op collapsed in my state,” Tiberi said. “Americans deserve a system that provides the flexible and affordable coverage they need without fear of it collapsing under its own weight.”