EDITORIAL: Braun calls Obamacare ‘unmitigated disaster’ — only option is to repeal, replace

Oct. 29--American voters are facing what is being touted as one of the most important midterm elections ever on Nov. 6. And the most important issue, according to a poll of voters by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal, is health care.

So it behooves us, as Indiana voters, to determine which of the two candidates for the Senate from this state has the best views on that issue before we choose which one to send to Washington. We believe it is Republican Mike Braun.

Health care has been a huge issue for a long time, coming to a head with President Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), which he signed into law on March 23, 2010.

Incumbent Democrat Sen. Joe Donnelly wholeheartedly supports Obamacare. Braun, his opponent in the midterm election, says it "is an unmitigated disaster for Hoosier families and businesses."

Republicans, including President Trump, have been promising to repeal Obamacare for years. They complain that the Affordable Health Care Act is an unconstitutional mandate that drives up health care costs, increases insurance premiums, diminishes the quality of health care, raises taxes and increases the deficit.

Admittedly, one of the biggest reasons it hasn't been repealed in spite of a Republican majority in both houses, is the uncertainty of what a GOP replacement plan would be.

"When that vote came up last year, we were able to protect health care by one vote," Donnelly said at the Democratic state convention in June. "You gave me that vote."

"For years, Democrat Donnelly has been telling Hoosiers that Obamacare needs to be fixed, while at the same time, voting to preserve this disastrous law every time it comes up for a vote in Washington," Indiana Republican Party Chairman Kyle Hupfer said.

"Now, faced with the reality that he can't even keep his hard-core Democrat supporters in line after months of touting his supposed support for President Trump, Democrat Donnelly is doubling-down on his embrace of Obamacare, and is finally conceding that he was, in fact, the deciding vote to perpetuate the premium spikes, lost coverage and overall chaos and disarray brought about by this law."

Braun decries the Democrats' preference for a top-down, government-run health care system.

"Despite the promises of Washington politicians," Braun says of Obamacare on his campaign website, "premiums went up, families lost their doctors and insurance options disappeared. There is no repairing this broken law; the only option is to repeal and replace every word and regulation."

Braun says he wants common sense alternatives that will reduce costs and increase access in our health care system, such as allowing individuals to purchase insurance across state lines and allowing small business to pool together to purchase insurance at lower prices.

Donnelly says a vote to end Obamacare would take away coverage for pre-existing conditions, a hot-button issue in the campaigns between he and Braun.

But Braun told a crowd in Hamilton County north of Indianapolis in August that insurance companies should be forced to cover pre-existing medical conditions.

"Definitely; yes. Nobody should go broke because they get sick or have a bad accident," Braun replied when asked if health plans should cover pre-existing conditions.

Obamacare was never the right answer, and we believe Braun knows it isn't and will push for repeal. A Republican Congress given a new lease on life by the midterms can make that a possibility.

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