by Amanda Head
Obamacare completely changed the landscape of health insurance 15 years ago, many say for the worse, and this could be a winning issue to help House Republicans keep or expand their majority.
On Friday, Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., announced that his team is investigating and building a framework to fix the Affordable Care Act (ACA). He says that the solutions found by his team and others, including Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and the White House, overlap, suggesting a promising measure to make healthcare more affordable for Americans.
"Instead of complaining about Obamacare, we need to come up with our own solution. What's been fun is to watch how much overlap. For example, my team is not working with Senator Rick Scott's team, or directly even with the Trump administration. But everybody is kind of coming to the same conclusion on some concepts that could really be transformative in health care," Burlison told Just the News.
MAHA accounts may allow $25,000 savings towards healthcare
Burlison's plan would implement new, supplemental healthcare accounts, called MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) Accounts, which would function like a supercharged Health Savings Account (HSA), allowing individuals to save up to $25,000 tax-free annually for health insurance products and wellness expenses, and can be filled by the individual, their employer, government service resources, and others. The accounts would function as a patchwork mechanism to effectively solve many of the decades-long issues within Obamacare.
Burlison, aware of the zeitgeist surrounding the Obama-era phrase, "If you like your plan, you can keep your plan," which was largely untrue, Burlison assured citizens that current plans would not be disrupted.
"The reason why I'm not tweaking a health savings account is because I think that we truly need to make the pitch, and mean it when we say, 'if you like your current plan, you can keep it.' We're not touching your current plan, even Obamacare, we're not going to touch it. But we're going to give you a life raft if you want out, if you want to jump ship and get out of Obamacare."
Burlison also criticized the role of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in driving up pharmaceutical prices by keeping large portions of manufacturer rebates instead of passing savings to consumers, while favoring higher-cost drugs that yield bigger rebates. The three dominant PBMs, controlling nearly 80% of the market, use spread pricing and restrictive formularies, inflating list prices and out-of-pocket costs for patients.
Focus on wellness and preventative care
Burlison believes the MAHA account could be implemented by March 2026, potentially reducing healthcare costs and increasing consumer options. The new plan will also please the holistic crowd as well, focusing also on wellness and preventing medical issues rather than just treating the problems once they emerge. "In this account, you can spend 150 bucks a month of tax-free money on your protein, produce, vitamins, supplements, and fitness," to encourage whole-of-health wellness, Burlison said.
"I think that it's a good idea to encourage people and give them this kind of tax benefit if they're trying to be healthy, absolutely."
Obamacare has been rife with complaints since its inception in 2010. The individual mandate, while upheld by the Supreme Court in 2012, has remained a persistent source of controversy for imposing a financial penalty on Americans who choose not to purchase health insurance, which critics argue infringes on personal freedom. Even after Congress reduced the penalty to $0 in Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the mandate’s lingering framework continues to fuel legal challenges and political debates over government overreach.
Millions left underinsured under Obamacare
Skyrocketing premiums and deductibles in the ACA marketplace have endured as a major complaint, with average individual market premiums rising exorbitantly from 2013 to 2023 in many states despite federal subsidies. High out-of-pocket costs have left millions of subsidized enrollees “underinsured,” unable to afford care even with coverage, a problem that has worsened as insurers exit markets or raise rates to offset rising medical costs.
Narrow provider networks and limited choice restrictions continue to plague ACA exchange plans, with roughly 70% of 2024 marketplace plans classified as narrow or ultra-narrow by researchers. Patients frequently discover their preferred doctors or hospitals are out-of-network, leading to surprise bills or the need to travel long distances for in-network care, an issue that has shown little improvement since the law’s early implementation years.
Burlison said that he ultimately wants to see competition return to the marketplace, forcing insurers to lower prices: "This will return things back to the day when people used to go to their American family agent or their State Farm agent and buy their home insurance, car insurance and health insurance. And it was very affordable back then."
"You'll suddenly see Liberty Mutual advertising their health insurance plan as the cheapest, the best plan that's out there. You'll see Progressive do the same thing. So the number of options will explode, and people will see insurance companies competing for individuals to purchase their plans."
Amanda Head
Source: https://justthenews.com/government/white-house/rep-burlison-republicans-will-fix-obamacare-and-soon
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