[StBernard] ICYMI - Can Bobby Jindal's Health Plan Get the Republican Party on Track?

[Westley Annis]

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT 
Can Bobby Jindal's Health Plan Get the Republican Party on Track?


The Louisiana governor's proposal could be a turning point for the party.


Peter Suderman
April 8, 2014
Reason.com
<http://click.bsftransmit7.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c65375%7c9390%7c5&
digest=%2ft%2b34DLlgmz3%2bb%2bQQX7mMw&sysid=1>
<http://click.bsftransmit7.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c65376%7c9390%7c5&
digest=ub%2fwJ0aAKjo5Tqh73MUzOQ&sysid=1>
<http://click.bsftransmit7.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c65377%7c9390%7c5&
digest=7o7gcJQluQxeZJB1mLCyIA&sysid=1>
<http://click.bsftransmit7.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c65378%7c9390%7c5&
digest=TKzYG1S3h8fRrY8NlXdRVA&sysid=1>
<http://click.bsftransmit7.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c65379%7c9390%7c5&
digest=G7DEwU6Ry49yxUaC0y1d%2fw&sysid=1> 
 
Before conservative policy wonks can win any policy victories, they'll need
to overhaul the Republican Party. For an idea of what that might look like
and the challenges any transformation will entail, they should look to one
of the party's wonkiest politicians, Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal.


Last week, as President Obama touted the 7.1 million private plan sign-ups
in Obamacare's first open enrollment period, Jindal gave the world a glimpse
at what the outlines of a Republican alternative might look like. Not only
would the plan repeal Obamacare, it would, among other things, overhaul the
tax code to remove the tax advantage for employer-sponsored health plans,
offer incentives to states to protect access for individuals with
preexisting health conditions, block grant Medicaid, expand health savings
accounts, and create a $100 billion innovation fund for states experimenting
with policies to bring down the cost of health care.  

But just as important as the particulars was the simple fact that Jindal was
offering something that many Obamacare proponents, including the president,
had said did not exist: a conservative health care policy. At the same time,
Jindal's plan was a challenge to his fellow Republicans to take health
policy more seriously, to reckon with the tradeoffs it requires, and to
begin the process of unifying around an alternative. It was a declaration,
of sorts, that Republicans and the right could-and should-be wonky and
policy focused too.

Jindal's proposal, released by his policy group, America Next, was not the
first health policy plan to come from the right. In recent months, Rep Tom
Price (R-Ga.), as well as GOP Sens. Tom Coburn (Okla.), Richard Burr (N.C.),
and Orrin Hatch (Utah), have put forth ideas for overhauling the health
system as well. But Jindal's proposal is a sign that the party is shifting
its focus-not by giving up on repeal of Obamacare, but by thinking about
what might come next. And because Jindal is a potential candidate for the
party's 2016 presidential nomination, it is also a signal that that health
care reforms will be a major issue in elections to come.

Republicans have often struggled with how to talk about health care,
especially when their opponents promise expansive subsidized coverage
benefits. Jindal's plan offers a hint as to how Republican candidates might
sell their approach: Instead of emphasizing coverage, Jindal's plan
prioritizes reducing the cost of health care. That's a potential weak point
in Obamacare, which was sold as a way to reduce health insurance premiums
for families, but will, as President Obama admitted last week, still result
in premiums continuing to rise. (Obama's promise is now that premiums will
rise slower than they would have in the absence of Obamacare.)

...

Jindal clearly wants to shift gears by pushing the party in a more
solution-oriented direction. His health care plan is intended as the first
in a salvo of big-picture policy proposals set for release. Those plans are
meant both to prod the party in a new direction and to establish Jindal as
the leader of its brain trust.

His challenge will be to convert his policy chops into political success.
Jindal has plenty of wonky cred, but his role in the party sometimes feels
more like that of a particularly prominent think tank scholar than a
national political leader. He's a Rhodes Scholar with an Ivy League
pedigree, holding degrees in both biology and public policy from Brown, as
well as a political science degree from Oxford.

Yet Jindal's record as governor makes it clear that he is more than an Ivory
Tower geek. He has a real record of accomplishments as governor-cutting
Louisiana's income tax, expanding access to charter schools, pushing budget
reform, and growing the state's economy at a faster rate than the nation as
a whole in the years since before the recession. His larger vision,
meanwhile, goes well beyond small-scale policy tweaks.

Conservative wonks hoping to overhaul the GOP, or Washington, will have a
significantly tougher time than any governor. The existing policy
barriers-the mass of federal programs and bureaucracies, all with
constituencies in tow-are larger, and the political incentives for even
sympathetic politicians to avoid difficult reforms are bigger still.
Jindal's health plan is a strong nudge to a party that has long lacked
policy direction, and a reminder that there's no better time to start the
process of change than right now.

Published by Reason.com
<http://click.bsftransmit7.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c65375%7c9390%7c5&
digest=%2ft%2b34DLlgmz3%2bb%2bQQX7mMw&sysid=1> .



 
<http://click.bsftransmit7.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c65370%7c9390%7c5&
digest=kE2Arw2qHW%2fkOow9khHxQw&sysid=1>