“Health Checks” As Practical Way To "Fix" ObamaCare

You’re either part of the solution or part of the problem.

Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998), Civil rights activist

I recently received an e-mail from Grace-Marie Turner of the Galen Institute. The e-mail contained an article from the February 13 New York Times – “A New Fix for ObamaCare," by Grace-Marie Turner and Diana Furchgott-Roth).

The Op-Ed piece argues that “health checks” might solve a looming dilemma – what to do for 6 million people subsidized in federal exchanges should the Supreme Court in June rule their subsidies illegal and a violation of the health law.

It is a daunting dilemma. One cannot abandon these people and leave them uninsured. One cannot renege on federal promises, even if those promises were ill-founded. One cannot merely criticize, one must offer solutions.

So what do Grace-Marie Turner and Diana Fuchgott-Roth propose?

Health Checks.

“Beginning in June,” say the authors, “instead of subsidies, the 37 states without exchanges could receive a new capped allotment from the federal government that we call health checks.”

Using the existing state and federal infrastructure to disburse funds for the Children’s Health Insurance Progra, which covers 9 million children, the states could distribute federal checks to offset costs of lost insurance subsidies.

Health checks would return control to the states, pleasing politicians and legislators in the states; preserve the ACA’s present extension of coverage, placating the Obama administration; and provide a practical way to deal with the political fallout should the Supreme Court rule against federal exchange subsidies.

For Republicans and Democrats alike, it would be a bipartisan solution. It would be better to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.