With the loss of Free Choice Vouchers, hundreds of thousands of workers will now be forced to choose between their employers' unaffordable insurance or going without health care.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
While Free Choice Vouchers didn't fulfill my vision of a health care system in which every American would be empowered to hire and fire their insurance company, they were a foothold for choice and competition and a safety valve for Americans whose employers are already forcing them to bear more and more of their family's health insurance costs.
Without Free Choice Vouchers, there is little in the health reform law that discourages employers from increasingly passing the burden of health care costs onto their employees.
Unfortunately, the health care bill commonly referred to as ObamaCare is making it more difficult for employers to provide insurance to their employees. It limits individuals' ability to pick their own doctors and, over time, decreases the quality of care we provide in this country.
The reality is that the special interest groups that have lobbied against Free Choice Vouchers object to any measure that would empower employees to have a say in their health benefits because it begins to erode their power in the current health care system.
That's what the Affordable Care Act is all about. It's about filling the gaps in employer-based care so that when we lose a job, or go back to school, or start that new business, we'll still have coverage.
We should work to de-link health insurance from employment so if you lose your job, your health insurance goes with you and it is personal, portable and affordable.
People would have a health care insurance policy they can call their own. They could choose one that exactly fits their families' needs and their budgets, be able to take that coverage with them from job to job and be able to fire their insurance company if it doesn't treat them well.
Higher costs naturally translate into fewer employers offering insurance coverage, and fewer employees accepting it, even when it is offered.
Americans want and deserve a broad array of health insurance choices so they can identify those that best fit their own individual or family needs. These choices expand when we allow free enterprise to foster innovation, not smother it with taxes and one-size fits all ideology.
We can have the best health insurance options in the world, and people still won't get needed care if we don't increase our supply of primary care physicians and nurses.