New york yankees

by DAVID FRUM, The Daily Beast

 

Philip Klein writes a rebuttal to my praise for Romneycare. At the core of his argument is found this remarkable—even breathtaking—statement:

 

"Some of us simply don’t believe that the way to fix our health care system is for the government — whether at the federal or state level — to mandate, regulate and subsidize the purchase of health insurance."

 

"Some" may disbelieve these things, but even among conservatives, it is unlikely to be a very big "some."

No government subsidy for the purchase of health insurance? Already in 2008, the exclusion of employer-provided healthcare benefits was subsidized to the extent of $131 billion a year, the single biggest tax expenditure in the tax code.

 

The ill effects of this subsidy are pretty notorious by now. Equally notorious is the difficulty of eliminating it. The concept of exchanges + mandates was developed (and advocated by conservative Republicans for almost two decades) precisely in order to work around the subsidy. Philip may think it would be neater and cleaner to eliminate it outright? Good luck to him in finding even a corporal's guard of Republicans in House or Senate who will publicly agree.

 

No government regulation of health insurance? Insurance regulation in the United States dates back almost to the very beginning of the republic. States took the lead through the 19th century. [MORE]

Via Eric Byler