Missouri Rep. Burlison’s big idea to create free-market alternative to ‘crappy’ Obamacare

The healthcare reform proposal by Missouri Rep. Eric Burlison is certain to attract MAGA Republicans with the title “Make America Healthy Again.”

His MAHA Plan aims to circumvent and surpass the offerings of Obamacare by creating supercharged Health Savings Accounts giving U.S. citizens tax-free control over funds used for insurance, medical costs and healthy food.  

Burlison tells The Lion’s Chris Stigall he’s happy with the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill this session, but a topic he was hoping to address was healthcare and the current “affordability crisis.”

His MAHA Plan is an attempt to introduce a free-market alternative to the government-centric  Obamacare.

“If people like their crappy Obamacare, they can keep it. They can truly keep it,” Burlison said, “But we’re going to give people a better product. Instead of buying insurance through your employer, your employer writes the check to your MAHA account, and you can put in your own money, tax free.

“You can get charitable donations or maybe government help into your MAHA account. And then you get to go out in the insurance market and pick whatever insurance policy you want.”

“Maybe you want a health-sharing ministry policy. Maybe you want an association policy. Maybe you want a state-sponsored plan. Or if, God forbid, you want the [Affordable Care Act], you can have that. But let people pick and pay the premiums for the product that they want. And guess what happens when you do that? You get to pick your network. You get to pick your doctors and which doctors are in the network, or what hospitals are in your network.

“If you want to do direct primary care, you can do that. You also would be able to pay for deductibles tax free. You’d be able to pay your co-pays tax free.”

Burlison’s Make America Healthy Again concept goes beyond just creating a cheaper healthcare system, but a goal is to actually make the American people healthy.

“We’ve got to address the healthy issue in America, not just healthcare costs.” Burlison said. “The American people are not healthy. The food that we’re eating isn’t healthy, and we end up paying for it on the back end with expensive medical bills. Why not flip the script and reverse that? Why not encourage people through their MAHA account each month to be able to purchase healthy food?

“I think we will fail the American people if we don’t properly address it.”

Burlison hadn’t introduced his MAHA Plan as of publication time, but some of the concepts come from a bill co-sponsored with Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, introduced in January: H.R. 317 would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to create health freedom accounts available to all individuals. No further action has been taken on that bill.

A Senate vote on a potentially doomed Democratic plan for a clean extension of Obamacare subsidies is expected next week.

Other Obamacare alternatives in Congress

Senator Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, is actively pitching a new healthcare tax plan to his colleagues and President Donald Trump. In November, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, put forth a plan involving “Trump Health Freedom Accounts,” which would be used to shop for insurance or provide money to pay out-of-pocket costs.

Senator Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, proposed a narrower bill that would create new savings accounts specifically to replace enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire.