Independence from Obamacare needed

Legislative update

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By U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston
Special to the News

POSTED:July 11, 2013 6:00 p.m.

The Obama administration last week announced it would postpone a controversial mandate within Obamacare for one year. Without the delay, businesses with at least 50 employees would be subject to fines beginning next year if they failed to provide their employees with health insurance.The announcement conveniently came just before a long holiday weekend for many Americans and while the president was abroad. It also just happens to push the job-killing requirement past next year’s elections.The good news, though, is that employers are given a year of relief from this massive new regulatory requirement.The bad news is everything else.Already, businesses have spent millions preparing to comply with the new regulations. Hard-working Americans have seen their hours cut so as not to be classified as full-time employees under the law.The move does nothing to impact the individual mandate that will require all Americans to purchase health care or be subject to a penalty. Already expected to cost $4 billion, the delay could further drive up President Obama’s historic deficits, as more are forced onto government-subsidized insurance plans.Try as it might, the Obama administration cannot issue enough waivers, special-interest carve-outs or delays to hide the fact that Obamacare is the wrong prescription for America. It increases costs, takes away choices and does nothing to solve the underlying problems in America’s health-care system.Instead, the law’s 159 new agencies, bureaus and boards will churn out new regulations, requirements and mandates. Already, they have added some 20,000 new pages of government rules, adding to the regulatory burdens that hold back our economy.Instead of delaying aspects of Obamacare, the misguided law should be repealed in its entirety. We should replace it with common-sense legislation that will bring down costs and increase access to care without growing the size or scope of the federal government. Enacting medical-liability reform, expanding health-savings accounts and opening interstate competition for insurance plans would do a world more good to that end than Obamacare ever will.This disastrous law was ramrodded through Congress with such reckless abandon that Nancy Pelosi said, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it.” Now that President Obama and his allies are learning just what is, they should join us in giving the American people independence from Obamacare.