David Frum - How GOP can rebound from its 'Waterloo'

[Xipe Totec]

Washington (CNN) -- What the hell do we Republicans do now?

(snip)

More relevantly: Do Republicans write a one-sentence bill declaring that the whole thing is repealed? Will they vote to reopen the "doughnut" hole for prescription drugs for seniors? To allow health insurers to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions? To kick millions of people off Medicaid?

It's unimaginable, impossible.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/03/22/frum.healthcare.gop.strategy/index.html


The one thing that Frum mentions, which may be one of those rare items that could attract bipartisan support, is doing away with employer-based health care:

"2) We should quit defending employment-based health care. The leading Republican spokesman in the House on these issues, Rep. Paul Ryan, repeatedly complained during floor debate that the Obama plan would "dump" people out of employer-provided care into the exchanges. He said that as if it were a bad thing.

Yet free-market economists from Milton Friedman onward have identified employer-provided care as the original sin of American health care. Employers choose different policies for employees than those employees would choose for themselves. The cost is concealed.

Wages are depressed without employees understanding why. The day when every employee in America gets his or her insurance through an exchange will be a good day for market economics. It's true that the exchanges are subsidized. So is employer-provided care, to the tune of almost $200 billion a year."

[Motown_Johnny]

1. Hell., I might be able to get behind that

Why should I be stuck in the insurance program my employer decides is best for his/her bottom line?

(Honestly I have Blue Cross and am lucky to have such a good boss)


The devil is always in the details but lifting the burden of health care from employers can be pro business as well as pro consumer since it creates more choice.

[Xipe Totec]

3. Employer-based health insurance is insurance for the healthy

Because it is impossible to keep your job if you're truly sick. It is the ultimate catch-22.

[Ozymanithrax]

2. They will run claiming to repeal the bill, but they will do what they did for eight years.

Not 1 fucking thing for health care.

They want power and know how to appeal to the stupid.

[Dappleganger]

4. I could definitely agree with that...

especially after dh told me of the room filled with newly-laid off people from his work over a year ago consisting mostly of folks who had major illnesses/time off during the past couple of years. Businesses are using health care costs spent by their employees and discriminating against them in their layoffs!