Crosstalk: February 14, 2017

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Twila Brase is President and co-founder of the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom, which work to protect health care choices, individualized patient care, plus medical and genetic privacy rights. Twila is a certified public health nurse and is speaker on the “Health Freedom Minute”.

Donald Trump has spoken strongly about the need to repeal the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare", saying he wanted a bill to do so on his desk by February 20. Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell promised one would be ready by the end of February. But with just two weeks left in February, no bill is forthcoming. It appears that the strong stands of President Trump and Congress are softening.

In actuality, Obamacare was essentially and expansion of Medicaid, which is for low income citizens. The vast majority of those enrolling in Obamacare were Medicaid eligible, or had lost their private insurance when Obamacare went into effect.

Some bills that are being introduced are very simple--in less than 100 words, repealing Obamacare and returning control to the states. This must start in Congress, as the Trump Administration cannot repeal it directly. But once elected, many Senators and Representatives are having second thoughts as they hear dire warnings that people would lose medical insurance if the Affordable Care Act was repealedd.

But repealing Obamacare would simply return regulation of insurance back to the states, and private insurance companies could provide insurance as they did before Obamacare took over. Should Obamacare be repealed, these companies could again offer policies, such as those that accept pre-existing conditions, and catastrophic health insurance policies which were outlawed by Obamacare.

The Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom has scheduled a national call-in to Senators and Representatives this Wednesday, February 16, asking callers to simply say "Repeal it All. Repeal it Now. Do not Delay, Where's the Bill?"

Even before Congress passes a bill, the new HSS Secretary Tom Price could begin to dismantle the multitude of regulations that were added to the law as it was passed, since it gave that office the discretion to work out the details. However, if the Obamacare law is not repealed, a future Secretary of Health and Human Services could issue a completely different set of regulations.

Also discussed is "Real ID", which is federal commandeering of state authority to establish identification methods, thus creating a National ID, which could then be used by the Department of Homeland Security to restrict access to healthcare, entering federal buildings, flying, purchasing firearms or ammunition, reserving a hotel room, renting a car, withdrawing cash from a bank, etc. without the National ID. Added to that is the possibility of government gathering individual information, including such areas as health information and financial records. This would be simple through the addition of an RFID chip, which would contain personal data that could be accessed by government agencies.

Not all states have agreed to participate, and many others have begun implementing such ID cards, but have not yet linked to the national database.