How to Fix Obamacare

In my column for The Week, I discuss ways in which the Affordable Care Act could be streamlined into a workable solution for health care reform:

If the election were held today, President Obama would probably lose. The Republicans would very likely score gains in the Senate, but probably lose seats in the House – maybe even lose their majority altogether.

In such a case, after January 2013, the US would have a president committed to the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (aka, “Obamacare”) – but lacking the votes to carry out his pledge.

Perhaps the Supreme Court may rescue that hypothetical president by voiding the ACA, resetting the screen for a Republican do-over.

More likely, though, the Supreme Court will act cautiously, leaving a hypothetical Republican president with a serious problem: how to keep his faith to his party without wrecking his own popularity. Remember, large elements of the ACA remain very popular with the public.

Republicans have assured voters that the popular bits will be maintained in a new Republican measure to “replace” the Affordable Care Act. But 21 months into the 111th Congress, nobody has even outlined such a replacement.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. The Affordable Care Act’s major provisions go into effect January 1, 2014. Come Inauguration Day, 2013, a hypothetical Republican president will have less than 12 months to devise, draft, explain and enact a new Republican health care law that preserve the parts of ACA the voters like, while junking the pieces that Republican activists and donors despise.

But a prudent Republican president will want a Plan B: a plan for living with the ACA and revising it in light of Republican priorities.

What would such a Plan B look like?

Click here to read more.