Liberals Won the Argument on Healthcare
A 2016 study found the average percent of health insurance paid by employers is 83 percent for single coverage and 72 percent for family coverage. How do you design a plan where the party that’s covering 72 percent of the cost can be removed – the employee is fired, laid off, or quits – and the employee can maintain the coverage until they find a new employer?
.. Health savings accounts? They’re a terrific idea. But a lot of people don’t have good impulse control and don’t save money the way they should. They don’t save for retirement, they don’t save for their children’s college educations, and they don’t save for unexpected expenses.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been joking, “Republicans are set to replace Obamacare’s system of subsidies, where the government gives you money to help pay for health insurance, with a system of refundable tax credits, where instead, the government will give you money to help pay for health insurance.”
.. Klein concludes, “Liberals, in other words, have won the central philosophical argument, and Republicans are reduced to fighting over the mechanics.” He is right, but we shouldn’t be surprised, because the conservative argument is thoroughly unappealing. The liberal argument is “somebody else” should pay for your health care (meaning everyone through taxation). The conservative argument is that you should pay for your health care.
.. Trump’s new skepticism about brokering a deal with Moscow also suggests the rising influence of a new set of advisers who have taken a tougher stance on Russia, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and new national security adviser H.R. McMaster. During his first meeting with National Security Council staff, McMaster described Russia — as well as China — as a country that wants to upend the current world order
.. European officials have tailored their rhetoric to appeal to Trump’s business background, including emphasizing the risks of negotiating a bad deal, rather than more nuanced arguments, according to one Western diplomat. Given Trump’s “America First” mantra, foreign officials emphasize how U.S. standing in the world could be diminished by making concessions to Russia instead of focusing on the importance of the U.S. and Europe sticking together to counter Moscow.