Thursday - October 08, 2009
One Bill, One Page: KISS
I had a little discussion with Vilmar the other day in the comments of one of his posts. He felt that no GOP solution to health care reform could get a fair shot; it would be buried in the House and ignored by the MSM. Those are fair points, but I have to disagree with his view that the best path for our Republican representatives is to Just Say No. Say NO to the lefty plans, but push a good, simple, cost effective plan of your own. If the word gets spread by the VRWC, then eventually Fox News will have to run the story. And if they run it long enough and loud enough, then the other parts of the MSM will have to notice it too, if only to say how no good it is. But that itself will let the regular folks know such a plan exists.
Here’s a plan, and a bunch of links. Looks pretty good to me.
1. Leave employer-provided insurance as it is and give individuals a $2,500 tax credit to equalize tax treatment for individuals who buy their own insurance.
2. Allow individuals to buy insurance across state lines.
3. Extend COBRA for up to 30 months, allowing people to keep their insurance if they leave a job.
4. Remove government regulations limiting insurers from offering premium breaks for healthy lifestyle choices.
5. Enact real malpractice reform (limit punitive damages to $250,000 and all noneconomic damages to $750,000).
6. Provide help to encourage insurance pools for the hard to insure.
That’s it. Over 10 years Anderson’s plan would spend $75B and include $345M in tax cuts. The Baucus bill (one version of it, at least) would spend $856B and include a net increase of $352B in tax hikes and $47B in fines. Both the Anderson and the Baucus plans would insure 95 percent of Americans.
There is something to be said for simplicity — and a lot to be said for achieving the same results as Democrats are promising without a massive tax hike, a government takeover of health care, another massive hit to the budget, and thousands of pages of new federal regulations.
A short essay on the subject is here at Commentary Magazine.
The proposed bill itself, put together by The Weekly Standard‘s Jeffrey Anderson, is available here. ONE PAGE. Jeffrey discusses the need for a plain talking basic reform bill that enhances freedom in his essay Keep It Simple.
The American people haven’t been shy about expressing their views on health-care reform. In the polls and at public events nationwide, they’ve made it clear that they don’t want a behemoth bill that would fundamentally transform a health-care system that works well for most Americans and which offers a level of care that is largely the envy of the world. But they are also understandably concerned about health care’s rising costs, its lack of portability, and the ten percent of Americans who are uninsured. They want to see these pressing problems be addressed, but in a sensible and moderate way.
The bill proposed by Senator Max Baucus does not answer Americans’ call. The Baucus bill is the real health-care bill, the bill on which the Obama administration is implicitly pinning its hopes. But it defiantly turns a deaf ear to the American people.
Republicans cannot lead merely by stating abstract principles. They must advance specific proposals--ones that are easily understandable and can be expressed in plain language to the American people. The Republican bill should be as short and simple as possible. It should be targeted to address Americans’ specific and pressing concerns. And it should make health insurance more accessible, affordable, and portable--without breaking the bank, threatening the quality of care, or jeopardizing the preexisting insurance of millions.
It always feels so good when a professional journalist writes something that supports my opinion, even if this essay comes out a few days later than I needed it. Simple Solution fans will immediately notice that this plan is a minor extension of the Ann Coulter Plan, but with money numbers crunched and added.
We don’t NEED a 1200 page government mega-bill, and we don’t NEED a government take-over of the health care industry. Do it the American Way: less government, more freedom, and lower taxes. Golly, that sounds like a core plank in the Republican Platform, doesn’t it? So help spread the word, and maybe, just maybe, eventually, our elected reps will have to notice it.
A big h/t to Right, Wing-Nut! who sums it all up nicely:
Over twenty years the “Small Bill” becomes revenue neutral, while the Baucus Plan puts us in a $2.9 trillion dollar hole.
Where are the Congressional/Senate Republicans on all this? Grab this plan and plaster it all over the airwaves; show Americans how you can get it done for 1/20 the cost and without handing over health care to the bureaucrats in Washington. Offer an alternative, watch the public response, and then see the Democrats try to pass a bill that thwarts the will of the people, and exposes their underlying purpose here: Not to reform health care, but to nationalize it, and bring a huge chunk of the economy under Washington’s control.
It would be the last bill this majority ever passes ...
Posted by Drew458
on 10/08/2009 at 11:27 AM
Filed Under: • Government • Health-Medicine •
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