The Only Defensible Obamacare Deal

Employers and individuals alike must be free to choose better, more affordable health insurance.

I’ve got a piece up this morning at NRO explaining the only defensible deal Republicans could strike on extending Obamacare subsidies for the wealthy is one that frees people to choose better, more affordable health insurance.

All they have to do is marry one Trump policy and one Obama policy:

At a time when Republicans should be building on President Trump’s greatest first-term health care victory, some are trying to give Democrats everything they want on Obamacare for nothing in return...

Here’s a crazy thought: if government regulations are making your health insurance too expensive or limiting your choice of treatments or providers, those regulations should be optional. You should have the right to choose better, more affordable health insurance...

The CBO found that Trump’s [policy] enabled most Obamacare enrollees to obtain comprehensive coverage at premiums as much as 60 percent below the lowest-price Obamacare plans — and often with “lower deductibles or wider provider networks.” Imagine: people not needing subsidies to get quality health insurance.

Republicans could free consumers to choose high-quality, affordable coverage by codifying Trump’s rules and writing those consumer protections into permanent law. The resulting health plans would be higher quality than Obamacare plans because they would not face Obamacare’s incentives to discriminate against the sick.

Freeing people from Obamacare holds a bipartisan pedigree — from none other than Barack Obama himself. In 2014, his administration recognized that Obamacare’s regulations are so destabilizing, and make health insurance so expensive, that they would destroy health insurance markets in U.S. territories.

Obama’s solution was to exempt U.S. territories from Obamacare’s health insurance regulations. For more than a decade, residents of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have had more freedom than mainland U.S. citizens to choose their health insurance.

Everyone deserves that freedom. Republicans should simultaneously free all employers and individuals to purchase any health plan available in any U.S. territory. Many could buy coverage at a lower premium from the same insurer they have right now. For most Obamacare enrollees, that coverage would be better and cheaper.

Congress absolutely should not extend Obamacare subsidies for the wealthy. Not by one day. Not by one penny.

At some point, however, a deal might be unavoidable. If that time comes, trading a temporary extension of subsidies for the wealthy for a permanent restoration of the freedom to choose better, more affordable health insurance would be not just a good deal, but an impressive one.

Read the whole thing.