Congress should roll back ObamaCare and enact carefully targeted, bipartisan reforms

 A USA Today editorial ("ObamaCare delay hints at deeper troubles," July 4) misdiagnoses the disease by asserting that alternatives to ObamaCare--rather than ObamaCare itself--would cause "more and more people to lose their insurance as costs rise to unaffordability."

By laying costly new employee expenses, coercive and conscience-trampling mandates, and a mountain of stifling regulations on the sore backs of struggling American businesses, ObamaCare itself threatens health care access. Gallup polling finds that 41 percent of small-business owners "have held off on hiring new employees and 38% have pulled back on plans to grow their business" because of ObamaCare.

Health industry analysts predict that "healthy consumers could see insurance rates double or even triple" under Obamacare, while 42 percent of Americans stand convinced that Obamacare will "affect your family's health care situation" negatively (compared to just 22 percent optimistic).

Congress should roll back ObamaCare and enact carefully targeted, bipartisan reforms that respect the rights of individuals and states. State governments can provide a high-risk pool safety net for the neediest patients. The feds can cut costs and increase efficiency by reining in burgeoning bureaucracy and red tape while increasing enforcement measures to eliminate rampant health fraud and abuse. Patient-controlled, low-premium health savings accounts, coupled with sensible malpractice reform and realistic reimbursement rates to retain physicians, will also tamp down costs and preserve access.

American health care reform surgery requires focus on the patient--not the government--and it must be performed carefully with a scalpel--not a bludgeon.