AAPS Urges Trump to Rescue People from Government Medicine–Don’t Wait for Congress

TUCSON, Ariz., Jan. 9, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- While Republicans in Congress argue over repealing or replacing or delaying on the Affordable Care Act (ACA or "ObamaCare"), the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) presents an immediate action plan in a recently released White Paper.

"ObamaCare is not like a weak but still beating heart," states AAPS executive director Jane Orient, M.D. "It's more like a cancer. You don't want to replace a cancer. You just want to support the patient as he recovers from its removal."

President Obama famously promised that "if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan." But the question today, Dr. Orient suggests, is: "If you don't like your government plan, do you have to keep it?"

The problem is not just ObamaCare, but the whole "healthcare delivery system," including other government entitlements, with which ObamaCare is inextricably intertwined. This structure is unsustainable. AAPS compares it with the Leaning Tower of Pisa, now kept from collapsing by 800 tons of lead brick counterweights, among other costly and ingenious expedients.

The system depends on deficit financing and has already accumulated an enormous, unpayable debt, AAPS explains. Collapse is inevitable. Rescuing people trapped in the structure is imperative, and efforts must begin now.

Factors forcing people to stay on government-financed or subsidized plans include the lack of alternatives and the ObamaCare penalties, which are increasing greatly. "ACA regulations have driven affordable plans out of the market," AAPS notes. "And low-risk individuals are forced to pay a premium many times higher than is actuarially fair."

ObamaCare is enforced by the executive branch. Obama propped it up by dozens of unilateral changes. President-elect Trump can reverse those unlawful actions. He should begin by withdrawing the Obama Administration's appeal of U.S. House of Representatives v. Burwell, which would then allow the district court ruling against Obama's illegal subsidies, which use money Congress did not appropriate, to go into effect.

Comprehensive third-party payment plans are not insurance, and this concept is a flaw in the foundation of ObamaCare, Medicare, and Medicaid, the AAPS White Paper explains. "All these entitlements basically involve the forcible redistribution of wealth, not insurance," Dr. Orient states.

"True reform means we must reject unsound economic premises and remove barriers to competition. We don't want to replace one damaged tower with another one having the same disastrous flaws," she continues.

"We hope Congress will not place a Republican imprimatur on a concept designed to fail. Meanwhile, President Trump can make changes permitting freedom to thrive."

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a national organization representing physicians in virtually all specialties and every state. Founded in 1943, AAPS has the motto "omnia pro aegroto," which means "all for the patient."

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SOURCE Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)