Editors at National Review Online urge Republican leaders to flesh out healthcare policy ideas.
Asked to explain his health-care proposal during the presidential debate, Donald Trump said, “I have concepts of a plan. I’m not president right now. But if we come up with something I would only change it if we come up with something better and less expensive.” This is even less specific than when he said in 2016 that he wanted to do away with “lines around the states.”
There are ways to make health care better and less expensive than it is, but the only chance to do so is for Republicans to present an alternative to government control. Unfortunately, the inability to articulate such an alternative has been a problem for Republicans that, while it dates back further than Trump, he is only exacerbating.
The hybrid U.S. health-care system, which accounts for one-sixth of the U.S. economy, is a confusing mess. It lacks the government-imposed cost restraints that, while impairing quality and access, can help contain spending in fully socialized systems. But the state still has a large enough role to stifle the sort of market innovation that has led to lower costs and better quality in many other sectors of the economy, such as transportation, technology, and communications.
Ever since Republicans failed to repeal and replace Obamacare, they have been in a bit of a holding pattern on health-care policy. With time, the appetite for full repeal has waned, especially as Tea Party members who were elected on promises to get rid of the law have been replaced by more populist members of the caucus who are less hostile to the welfare state. Yet at the same time, Republicans still don’t want to come right out and say that Obamacare is here to stay and they will work to make it less bad.
