Nebraska Leads the Way on Healthcare

There isn't much to get excited about when it comes to healthcare these days. Obamacare has failed to deliver the affordable outcomes it promised in just about every way imaginable. The broken promise which troubles me most is President Obama's famous line, "if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it," because this couldn't have been any further from the truth.

Democratic presidential hopefuls have now completely abandoned this charade as well as Obamacare's failing individual marketplaces and moved straight to "Medicare for all," which is a term for wholly government-run healthcare. Such socialized healthcare schemes risk putting taxpayers on the hook for over $30 trillion in just the first 10 years and, in other countries, have led to decreases in overall quality, including rationing of care, long wait times, and little incentive for innovation or breakthroughs in new treatments.

Our very own Nebraska Farm Bureau has a different idea. Instead of moving toward more government control and taxpayer funding, this private-sector organization stepped up to offer health insurance to its members at no cost to taxpayers. My Republican colleagues and I on the House Ways and Means Committee invited NEFB Chief Administrator Rob Robertson to testify this week on its health plan which now in its first year provides health insurance to over 700 of Nebraska's farmers and ranchers with an average savings of 20-25% over Obamacare.

This plan was made possible by a 2018 Trump administration rule which encouraged its creation and reassured consumers the federal government would not interfere with their efforts to pool coverage. The best part? NEFB's plan covers pre-existing conditions. I have always supported protections for pre-existing conditions, but understand there should be less emphasis on mandating what consumers must purchase, and instead more on empowering the private sector to provide patient-based outcomes with the highest level of care through innovation. Quality care itself provides an incentive for Americans to obtain and keep health insurance.

The solution to our healthcare dilemma is simple: empower the consumer, not the bureaucrat. Our goal should be to ensure horror stories involving months-long waiting lists, government rationing, and scarcity of care are never heard in our country as they are in so many others with socialized or single-payer healthcare systems. America is a country which respects the right of the individual to determine the nature of their own healthcare and the lowest possible level of taxation necessary to conduct the core functions of government as the Founders outlined them. Medicare for all is not one of them.