Newsmax: Daines: Senate Republicans Pushing for State-Led Solutions on Healthcare

The Senate will soon be voting to repeal Obamacare, Montana Sen. Steve Daines said in Saturday’s GOP address, and he is pushing for Republicans to replace the healthcare law with “state-led solutions that put patients back in the center of the healthcare equation.” 

Obamacare puts the “whims of Washington bureaucrats over the needs of hardworking American families,” Daines said Saturday. “After five years of seeing President Obama’s experiment with Americans’ health care result in failure and embarrassment, the American people know that it’s time to stop putting more Band-Aids on something that’s so far beyond repair.” 

“Premiums are rising once again, and in states like Montana, folks purchasing plans from the Obamacare exchanges are getting hit with double-digit rate increases,” said Daines.  

Most of those who are being hit hardest are people who can least afford the cost for their care, the senator continued, and the last thing they need is a heavy tax penalty to force them into buying “sub-par healthcare coverage.” 

All but one of the 23 co-ops established under Obamacare lost money last year, and in the past few weeks, more than half collapsed, forcing more than 700,000 Americans to find new options, he pointed out.  

“It’s just another example of how Obamacare is not only costing taxpayers billions of dollars, it’s failing to provide the American people with reliable access to affordable care,” Daines said. “Americans are once again forced off the health care plans they liked and away from the doctors they trusted.” 

Americans voted in a Republican majority to dismantle Obamacare, Daines continued, and “we are working to protect you from rising healthcare costs. And we are working to ensure you receive the quality healthcare you deserve.”