How 2024 Republican presidential candidates should talk about healthcare
Sally Pipes
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Republican presidential candidates are once again talking about healthcare policy. At a debate earlier this month, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) discussed the need for more affordable healthcare. Vivek Ramaswamy called for a more competitive insurance marketplace.
The renewed interest in healthcare among Republicans came on the heels of former President Donald Trump’s assertion that he’d seriously look at replacing Obamacare if he were to reclaim the White House in 2024.
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The U.S. healthcare system is in need of reform. And voters are rejecting the government-dominated ideas that Democrats are offering up. Republicans must be specific about how market-oriented reforms can deliver what voters are looking for.
Patients in America have little control over their healthcare decisions. Most people are enrolled in whatever insurance plans their employers choose — and only see the doctors in their insurers’ networks.
To change this status quo, Republicans should work to expand access to tax-advantaged savings accounts.
Consider health savings accounts, which just celebrated their 20th anniversary. These accounts allow people to set aside money tax-free that they can use for healthcare expenses. Because they control those dollars, they can shop around for the providers and services that best suit their needs and budgets.
Or take individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements, which enable workers to use tax-free dollars provided by their employers to purchase an insurance plan of their choice. Because they own their health insurance directly, people can take it with them from job to job — they’re not beholden to one employer for their insurance coverage.
Approaches such as these inject more competition into the healthcare sector and can thus lead to better quality, more choice, and lower costs over time.
But even if more patients did shop around, it wouldn’t necessarily mean they’d have options to compare. That’s largely because liberals have insisted on funneling more patients into government health programs and eliminating private alternatives.
Take short-term, limited-duration health plans. Although they often cost less and offer wider provider networks than the coverage available through the exchanges, Democrats have called them “junk insurance” designed to sabotage Obamacare, and they have worked to limit them or ban them outright.
Republicans can reverse this trend by protecting and expanding access to short-term plans. Doing so would again inject more competition into a sclerotic market for health insurance.
These ideas should be part of any reform agenda aimed at lowering costs, improving quality, and counteracting the failures of Obamacare. Republicans would do well to start talking about them — on the campaign trail and beyond.
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Sally C. Pipes is the president, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith fellow in healthcare policy at the Pacific Research Institute. Her latest book is False Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All (Encounter 2020). Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @sallypipes.