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Townhall
A Health Care
Solution
by Mona Charen
Mar 22, 2013
In my last column, I argued that for all the undeniable woes of the
Republican Party, the unfurling of Obamacare represents a huge
vulnerability for Democrats. The Democratic health reform bill is
economically nonsensical and politically unpopular. A recent Rasmussen
poll found that 54 percent believe the law will damage the U.S. health
care system. Even among Democrats, support for the law is ebbing. In
February, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that only 57 percent of
Democrats (compared with 72 percent in November of 2012) support the
law.
The battle over health care reform is not over. Yes, the 2012 election
ensured that the law would not be repealed and replaced in 2013. But
when the American people are unhappy with a policy, they find a way to
alter it. Republicans can tie themselves in knots and consider
abandoning their principles on abortion, taxes, immigration or marriage
(and perhaps some of those positions require rethinking), but the
health care issue is pitched right over home plate.
Nearly every American is intimately concerned with the delivery of
health care. Choice and competition can deliver what Americans desire
-- a quality product at an affordable price. Before offering reform
proposals, Republicans need to be clear that they are not endorsing the
status quo ante.
The pre-Obamacare health care system was not a free market for health
care at all but a peculiar hybrid with distorting incentives created by
bad government policy. Because the government set wages and prices
during World War II, employers were not permitted to raise salaries
more than a set amount approved by National War Labor Board. Employers
resorted to providing fringe benefits, including health coverage, and
the IRS approved this workaround by treating fringe benefits
differently from wages. Thus was born the link between employment and
health insurance.
Read the rest of the article at Townhall
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