Will the Affordable Care Act Be Glossed Over Again at Wednesday's GOP Debate?

ST. PAUL, Minn.—With popularity numbers still bouncing between candidates, and with presidential hopefuls like Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Bobby Jindal offering their own “repeal-and-replace” plans, health care experts and concerned Americans alike are wondering how much the Affordable Care Act will come into play at Wednesday’s GOP debate at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

With the Oct. 28 debate fast-approaching—and with many more debates on the horizon even before the calendar pages turn to 2016—one patient freedom organization says that, so far, there has been one element noticeably absent from the debate conversation among presidential hopefuls—Obamacare.

Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF, http://www.cchfreedom.org), a patient-centered national health freedom organization based in St. Paul, Minn., existing to protect health care choices, individualized patient care, and medical and genetic privacy rights, says, in fact, that the absence of “repeal-or-replace” talk was the invisible elephant in the room at the last GOP presidential debate.

But CCHF president and co-founder Twila Brase says Obamacare should be a major topic of debate this time among the candidates.

“America is rapidly moving toward fully socialized medicine—government-controlled health care,” said CCHF president and co-founder Twila Brase. “Despite the fact that Obamacare is a federal government takeover of the entire health care system, including doctors’ medical decisions, just a few candidates so far have mentioned the Affordable Care Act during debates, and only recently have any offered actual plans with elements to protect patient privacy, which is the key to protecting patient control. Ronald Reagan was right. He told Americans to contact Congress to oppose a 1960 universal health care bill for the elderly because it would lead to socialized medicine for the entire country. That slide into national health care began with the enactment of Medicare in 1965.

“Medicare,” Brase continued, “created a ‘cost crisis’ that led to the HMO Act of 1973. This led to HMOs for people in Medicaid, and in 2003, Congress enacted Medicare Advantage (HMOs) for senior citizens. Then Democrats strengthened managed care by enacting Obamacare in 2010, and Republicans strengthened ACA controls over doctors even more this year through the ‘Doc Fix’ bill. As a result, and with the assistance of government-mandated computerized medical records, treatment decisions are tracked and increasingly dictated by outsiders—not the patient and the doctor.

“Control over patient care is the part of Obamacare that few know or understand. We can still stop socialized medicine, but who will fight the battle? These are questions that must be answered by those who want to be President.”

CCHF has been educating the public on reasons why Congress must repeal Obamacare. These include the many things the public does know about Obamacare:

Higher premiums, higher deductibles and higher health care costs overall

A national exchange through the federal Healthcare.gov website, plus state-based government exchange feeder systems

Mandatory reporting to the IRS on individual and family insurance status by insurers, employers, states and individuals

An IRS penalty tax for not being covered/insured (up to 1% for 2014, 2% for 2015 and 2.5% for 2016)

But there are many things the public does not know about Obamacare, including the takeover of insurance as Americans know it and the takeover of the medical profession as a whole—and these takeovers will greatly intrude the doctor-patient relationship and options for medical treatment.

“The next President must protect citizens from the evils of socialized medicine,” Brase said. “The country is anxiously waiting to hear what candidates have to say at Wednesday’s debate.”

Brase addresses the most pressing health care topics during CCHF’s daily, 60-second Health Freedom Minute radio feature. Heard on approximately 350 stations nationwide, including 200 on the American Family Radio Network and 100 on the Bott Radio Network, Health Freedom Minute helps listeners learn more about the agenda behind health care initiatives, as well as steps they can take to protect their health care choices, rights and privacy.

Recent Health Freedom Minute topics have included the new ICD-10 medical coding system, patient profiling, hospital fraud, medical data privacy, patient outcomes and socialized medicine. The one-minute program is free for stations to run; for details, contact Michael Hamilton at mhamilton@hamiltonstrategies.com or (610) 584-1096 or (215) 519-4838.

For more information about CCHF, visit its web site at http://www.cchfreedom.org, its Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/cchfreedom or its Twitter feed, @CCHFreedom.

Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom, a patient-centered national health freedom organization based in St. Paul, Minn., exists to protect health care choices, individualized patient care, and medical and genetic privacy rights. CCHF sponsors the daily, 60-second radio feature, Health Freedom Minute, which airs on approximately 350 stations nationwide, including 200 on the American Family Radio Network and 100 on the Bott Radio Network. Listeners can learn more about the agenda behind health care initiatives and steps they can take to protect their health care choices, rights and privacy.

CCHF president and co-founder Twila Brase, R.N., has been called one of the “100 Most Powerful People in Health Care” and one of “Minnesota’s 100 Most Influential Health Care Leaders.” A public health nurse, Brase has been interviewed by CNN, Fox News, Minnesota Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, NBC’s Today Show, NPR, New York Public Radio, the Associated Press, Modern Healthcare, TIME, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The Washington Times, among others. She is at the forefront of informing the public of crucial health issues, such as intrusive wellness and prevention initiatives in Obamacare, patient privacy, informed consent, the dangers of “evidence-based medicine” and the implications of state and federal health care reform.