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Polls show that Americans trust Democrats Republicans on health care more than any other issue. However, they also show that conservative health care solutions, such as price transparency and increased choice and competition for lower prices, are popular.
This dynamic has led to a conventional wisdom among the center-right health care reform community – that Americans will come to trust conservatives if we talk more about our marketplace and state and local policies to make care and coverage more affordable.
We agree that conservatives should not avoid discussing health care, but polling by our two organizations conducted this summer suggests that a message too focused on market fundamentalism and saving money will fail.
What Americans want from health care coverage is peace of mind.
(iStock)
First, while Americans support specific ideas of free market health care reform, it will alienate voters if we talk about health care as if it were a typical commercial market. That’s because health care is life and death – the stakes are too high for people to accept normal market dynamics.
HEALTH CARE IS A MORAL ISSUE FIRST, ECONOMIC SECOND. HERE’S WHAT CONSERVATIVES SHOULD DO
For example, in health care, there is little concept of “luxury.” If a new treatment comes along that is more effective, it immediately becomes the standard of care. The idea that wealthy Americans can receive higher quality care than the middle class or the poor is anathema to what Americans want from a health care system.
Second, Americans already believe that health insurance is too complicated, and the basic trade-off they are asked to make when choosing a plan, between paying higher premiums or exposing themselves to more financial risk, seems like they are being forced to gamble with their health and that of their family. .
After all, what Americans want from health care coverage is peace of mind. The idea of more options and personalization of health insurance can be seen as adding to their stress and confusion, as well as exacerbating health care inequity, if explained simply in terms of saving money, rather than ensuring that everyone get the care they need.
Third, this desire for peace of mind in health care helps explain why in our research, most Americans said they preferred that laws and regulations be set at the national level to provide consistency and standards across the country. This is something we must keep in mind when promoting state and local health care solutions.
Fourth, even though Americans give our health care system low marks on most measures (quality of care being an exception), they value their individual care and coverage highly. As a result, there is little support for rapid and large-scale health care reform.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden during the health care bill ceremony in the East Room of the White House, March 23, 2010.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
So what should conservatives do? The answer is not to abandon our principles and embrace the leftist government’s socialist approach to health care. Neither is being timid and proposing only marginal changes to the system.
Instead, conservatives should embrace the goal of ensuring that every American — regardless of income — receives high-quality health care at a price they can afford and use market forces to achieve it. .
Fortunately, much of our agenda can be explained favorably in these terms. For example, ObamaCare and Medicaid plans are notorious for long appointment wait times and narrow provider networks that often exclude the best doctors. RELIEF Tough ObamaCare coverage rules it would allow plans to specialize, partner with centers of excellence, and give more Americans coverage for the high-quality care they need. Making room for association health plans, cost-sharing and direct contracting options would also give more Americans the opportunity to get high-quality care at a price they can afford.
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The same is true with reforming certificate of need laws that limit the number of health care providers in an area. We conservatives tend to talk about reforming these laws to encourage competition at lower prices. We should also note that it is the poorest Americans who suffer the most from fewer providers, and reform would give more people access to care.
Conservatives can address the American people’s desire for consistency and standards in health care with clear national quality standards, but allow state and local interpretation and enforcement to avoid one-size-fits-all rules. Waiver of Section 1332 from the innovation and deference that the Trump administration gave states in it responding to COVID-19 provide possible models.
Conservatives should also embrace a strategy that we at the America First Policy Institute have endorsed, “radical growth”—small but significant changes that, over time, add up to large-scale change.
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Price transparency in healthcare is a perfect example. It’s an issue with over 90% favorability that could dramatically change the complicated third-party payer system with all its intermediaries driving up costs and adding confusion. However, it will do so organically and over time by patients and doctors making independent decisions, not through the projects of central planners in Washington.
The big government approach to health care is riddled with failures that increase health inequality and lead to more confusion and frustration. Conservative healthcare solutions that put patients and doctors back in charge are the antidote to the mess big government has created. It’s time for us conservatives to take the moral and political high ground on health care by emphasizing how our solutions don’t just save money, but more importantly, save lives.
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Bobby Jindal was governor of Louisiana from 2008-2016 and a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. He directs the Center for a Healthy America at the America First Policy Institute.
