Conservatives Beware: RINO-Care Is Real and It's Coming
Far too many Republicans are obsessed with appearing moderate. They dream of a bygone era when Republicans and Democrats worked together hand-in-hand. These “moderates” pursue compromise at all costs, including the loss of their principles and dignity.
Weak-willed and gullible, they consistently capitulate to the left’s faux outrage and are desperate to placate Democrats’ mob-mentality. These RINOs strive to remain middle-of-the-road while failing to notice how far left the road is bending.
Somewhere deep in the bowels of Congress, AOC and the Squad™ are smiling. They’ve managed to move the Democratic Party so far to the extreme, Barack Obama — a radical in his own right — seems utterly milquetoast in comparison. But the radicalization of Democrats isn’t why the AOC is happy. No, the Squad is smiling because RINO Republicans are moving left to join them.
Nowhere is this change felt more profoundly than in the debate over health care.
Over the last few years, the national health care conversation has shifted increasingly leftward. Remember when Republicans promised to repeal Obamacare? It was a major 2016 conservative rallying cry. But no one dares talk about it anymore; it’s become taboo even to consider that the government’s role in health care should be further restricted. That’s because RINOs in the Senate shot down conservatives’ attempts to repeal the disastrous legislation, and the left has convinced the general public to move on.
Now, RINOs are again attempting to influence health care policy. Only this time, rather than simply denigrate the conservative agenda, they are actively promoting a liberal one. RINO-Care is coming, and it’s called the Lower Health Care Costs Act.
The Lower Health Care Costs Act, or LHCC, is a bill designed to address the health care phenomenon of surprise medical billing. While receiving emergency treatment, patients are often rushed to hospitals outside of their insurer’s network of providers without their knowledge. In such cases, insurance companies frequently refuse to cover the full cost of treatment. Patients only learn this fact after the hospital mails them a bill for tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid medical expenses.
If passed, the LHCC would attempt to solve this ongoing crisis. There’s only one problem: the bill is currently sponsored by Republican Lamar Alexander, a senator who Conservative Review listed as one of the top RINOs in Congress.
Conservative warriors like Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA have dubbed the bill “RINO-Care,” an all too accurate characterization. It’s really no surprise, then, that the LHCC would pander to the left’s insatiable appetite for greater government control.
And wouldn’t you know it — upon closer examination of the bill, that’s exactly what it does.
In essence, the LHCC would impose a system of price controls over the health care industry. It would mandate that hospitals can no longer charge out-of-network rates for their out-of-network services. Instead, the government would force health care facilities to accept a lower rate of compensation, tied to comparable Medicare reimbursement rates.
But let’s not forget that, for two-thirds of medical practices, the Medicare reimbursement rates are so low that they don’t even cover the cost of providing care.
That’s right — under RINO-Care, hospitals would effectively be forced to operate at a loss for the majority of out-of-network services.
Rand Paul, another stalwart conservative, deftly pointed out the nasty implications of the LHCC’s price controls. “If you fix the price that ER doctors work at, you will get a shortage,” Paul said. “This is what happened to Chavez, it’s what happened to Maduro. I don’t think we’re becoming Venezuela soon, but this is part of what they do down there.”
More than just creating health care shortages, though, RINO-Care would strip physicians of their right to set a price for their work. Under the LHCC, the government would have the power to dictate how much doctors are compensated for their out-of-network services. One would expect a policy like that to arise from Soviet-style communism, not a Republican member of Congress, but here we are.
The Lower Health Care Costs Act, with its price controls and authoritarian tendencies, shares more in common with the ideas of Venezuela and the Soviet Union than it does with conservative principles. But that’s because the “bipartisan” bill isn’t conservative at all.
A Republican may sponsor it, but the LHCC is much more interested in expanding governmental power than it is addressing the problem of surprise medical billing. Without a doubt, the bill has earned the title of RINO-Care, and any real conservative would be wise to oppose it.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
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