Are you ready for Obamacare?

Fall is finally here, and the worst piece of legislation in recent memory is coming to a hospital or doctor's office near you, and is bringing thousands of new IRS agents with it. Obamacare is set to take effect on January 1, 2014, registration begins October 1, 2013 (next week) but the law is still a chaotic mess and completely unworkable. Not even the bureaucrats and lawyers who wrote this abomination know what to make of it. Nevertheless, Obamacare’s effects on our lives have already begun. Thanks to the law’s regulations that punish employers with unaffordable mandates if they hire more than 49 workers, or employ workers for more than 30 hours per week, part-time employment has exploded, forcing millions of Americans to hold down multiple jobs just to make ends meet. Incredibly, 77 percent of jobs created during 2013 were part-time jobs, thanks to the president’s and democratic lawmaker's of 2010 signature job-killing legislation, which is quickly turning America into a part-timer nation. Obamacare is also hurting employment levels, and fewer people are participating in the labor force than in the past 34 years. Premiums and deductibles are also set to soar next year nationwide under to so-called ‘Affordable Care Act.’ Just here in California, monthly premiums are set to jump anywhere between 64 and 146 percent! Despite the president’s promises, Obamacare is quickly making healthcare even more unaffordable for the average American. Of course, under Obamacare anyone can simply decide to drop their medical insurance, and insure only when they become sick, since no insurance companies can deny medical coverage. In reaction to Obamacare's unaffordable prices, more and more people will undoubtedly drop their health insurance, and pay the $100 ‘Roberts tax’ and then simply insure themselves after they are diagnosed with an expensive medical condition. Unfortunately, this is an unsustainable business model; equivalent to someone buying auto insurance after they have had an accident. With risk pools shrinking as more people drop their insurance, those still acting responsibly by buying insurance will have to pay higher and higher premiums to support those acting irresponsibly, and these ever-higher prices will drive more and more people from affordable insurance. This is a self destructive cycle that will inevitably lead to medical insurance providers’ bankruptcy and the destruction of our private medical system. No doubt, Washington politicians will then claim to save us from health insurers' greed and exploitation by formally nationalizing our formerly world-class health system. This legislation is so bad that members of Congress are even seeking to exempt themselves from it! They fear a ‘brain-drain’ of Congressional staffers who will quit because of Obamacare’s negative effect on their federal benefits. Too bad they don’t worry about ‘brain-drains’ from small businesses. If only our elected politicians cared about their constituents as they care about themselves and their staffs, they would have reversed this legislative tragedy years ago. In order to get Americans back to work and preserve the world’s best healthcare system, we must reverse this abominable legislation! First, we must seek a delay on the entire law’s implementation, as the Obama Administration has already illegally done for specific parts of the law that will hurt the president's corporate donors. Then, we must build a legislative coalition to defund and ultimately repeal Obamacare, immediately followed by healthcare reforms that use a market-oriented approach to halt medical inflation and promote free-market competition that will lower healthcare prices.

The fight will be long and hard, but as Americans become increasingly familiarized with Obamacare’s ugly side-effects, we will prevail!

Greg Raths

Candidate for the 45th Congressional District for 2014