Don't quit on health care, GOP. Reboot.

The fact is that Republicans reached a fair degree of consensus during this process. Take the House Freedom Caucus. It is being excoriated in some quarters for its inflexibility, but in fact most of its members made their peace, whatever their misgivings, with the idea of providing tax credits to help people who otherwise could not buy health insurance. They insisted only that those tax credits be coupled with deregulation to lower premiums.

Advertisement

House Republican leaders insisted that they would like to see more deregulation, too, but feared that the Senate parliamentarian would rule that any bill with it would be subject to a filibuster. The parliamentarian has, however, said that she has not been consulted about how much deregulation she would allow.

Cutting regulations could be key to finishing the unification of the party. The Congressional Budget Office has previously found that cutting down on Obamacare regulations would increase coverage, since it would make it possible for people to buy low-premium coverage they prefer. While some specific deregulatory measures make moderate Republicans jittery — even a careful relaxation of the rules governing pre-existing conditions would induce some queasiness — improving the coverage numbers would allay their main concern about replacing Obamacare. Expanding the tax credit for people making a little bit too much money to qualify for Medicaid could allay it more.

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement