Dr. Campbell has stated “I oppose Obamacare and will make every effort to create a firewall against the unconstitutional encroachment on our great state”. It is true that Obamacare is unconstitutional and for that reason alone it should not be law in Texas. The Supreme Court ruled that the individual mandate was constitutional and some of the funding provisions were unconstitutional however the totality of the law, the takeover and regulation of the healthcare of all Texans by the Federal Government, is clearly beyond the powers granted to the government by the constitution and therefore is unconstitutional and must be opposed.
But beyond the unconstitutionality of Obamacare there are serious requirements in the law that must not ever be implemented in our state. First and most important is the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) which is a panel of 15 unelected, unaccountable government bureaucrats empowered to “reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending.” The board is charged with reducing spending by slashing payments to physicians and other medical providers which will have the effect of rationing healthcare to seniors, a process that has earned the boards the title of death panels.
Obamacare places mandates on employers to provide government approved health insurance to employees or pay fines. This job and growth reducing requirement will raise the cost of everything any sizable company does and reduce its number of employees.
And the important claim that Obamacare will provide universal medical coverage has turned out to be very far from true. A Congressional Budget Office report shows that Obamacare will only reduce the ranks of the uninsured by half leaving 30 million people without insurance nationwide. The Investors Business Daily points out “the fact that the other legs of the ObamaCare stool designed to expand insurance coverage — the individual mandate, the employer mandate and the state insurance exchanges — are also buckling. As a result, ObamaCare will likely cover far fewer uninsured than advertised. There’s even a chance that, if all goes wrong, it could actually make the uninsured problem worse.”
These three examples illustrate why Dr. Campbell is right to oppose Obamacare for Texas: it will ration healthcare for our seniors, it will reduce our economic and job growth, and it will not solve the problem of providing healthcare for all.
Dr. Campbell, an ophthalmologist who has served as the medical director for several hospitals, has a better idea. “The health care model,” she says, “won’t work until individuals are empowered, encouraged, and enabled to take direct control and responsibility for their own health. Increasing consumer choice and competition, combined with tort reform, is the fastest way to lower health care costs while improving quality of care.” It will take conviction and resolution to prevent the government takeover of our Texas healthcare system but we will be fortunate if Dr. Campbell is fighting this issue for us in the Texas Senate.
