Dear Libertarian,

Paul Ryan and the Republican establishment celebrated over Bud Light the narrow passage of the AHCA in the White House Rose Garden.

Their ‘victory’ was as lacking in substance as the beer they chose to drink.

The AHCA does nothing to solve the health care crisis that Americans are facing under the disaster of the Affordable Care Act. It changes how mandates are done, passes out a lot of tax money to insurance companies, shifts burdens around by tax brackets, and puts Republican labels on failed Democratic policies. Replacing a penalty paid to the IRS with a penalty paid to insurance companies doesn’t help the American people.

The American people want real solutions to the spiraling costs of health care for themselves and their families, and only the Libertarian Party is suggesting real solutions.

If Congress wants to fix the health care crisis, they can:

— Grant the same tax incentives to individuals that are given to employer-purchased health care plans to remove the perverse incentive for health insurance to be tied to a particular job or employer.

— Remove government restrictions that prevent people from purchasing catastrophic insurance coverage while paying for routine health care expenses out of pocket. That will drive down costs for health care services as consumers are allowed to shop for the best prices.

— Allow health insurance to be sold across state lines and remove other government barriers to competition that keep prices high.

— End all federal laws and regulations that restrict use, or that drive up the cost, of drugs, medical supplies and equipment, and other health care products and services. This includes ending all regulatory powers of the Food and Drug Administration. Doing so will drive down the cost of drugs while accelerating discovery of cures and treatments of debilitating diseases.

These simple proposals would give people more freedom to make the right health care choices for themselves and their families, improve health care outcomes, and reduce costs for all Americans.

Passage of the AHCA is an example of the broken Washington culture that says, “We have to do something. This is something. We have to do this.”

For the health of all of our families, government needs to do less to screw up a system they’ve been making worse for decades with regulation on top of regulation that increase costs and reduce health outcomes while lining the pockets of health care industry lobbyists and cronies.

Yours in liberty,

Nicholas Sarwark

Chair, Libertarian National Committee