TWS' Anderson: GOP Should Rally Behind Buffett's Opposition to Obamacare

Republicans should take billionaire Warren Buffett's longstanding – though seldom spotlighted – criticism of Obamacare as an invitation to delay the Affordable Care Act and propose a long-overdue alternative, writes Jeffrey H. Anderson in a Sept. 17 Weekly Standard blog post.

"You know things are bad for President Obama when even Warren Buffett has soured on Obamacare and says that 'we need something else,'" Anderson writes.

Providing insurance for everyone should not be the first step to take in correcting our nation's healthcare system, Buffet argued in 2010.

"Attack the costs first, and then worry about expanding coverage," he said. "I would much rather see another plan that really attacks costs. And I think that's what the American public wants to see. I mean, the American public is not behind this bill."

Money Morning quoted Buffet in 2010 as saying:

"We have a health system that, in terms of costs, is really out of control. And if you take this line and you project what has been happening into the future, we will get less and less competitive. So we need something else.

"What we have now is untenable over time," said Buffett, an early supporter of President Obama. "That kind of a cost compared to the rest of the world is really like a tapeworm eating at our economic body."

A USA Today/Pew Research poll published this week found that 53 percent of Americans disapprove of the president's health care plan. Many Americans are confused about how the law, effective Oct. 1, will impact on them.

For Anderson, the best way to clear up the massive confusion is to delay its implementation with the ultimate aim of scrapping Obamacare altogether.