Conservatives, Markets, and Health Care

Let me associate myself with J.P. Freire’s remarks about the GOP framing of health care issues (via Megan McArdle).

Rep. Camp recited a good number of the talking points I’ve heard among the right regarding healthcare. The problem is that the debate is about a feel-good issue (the health of a family), and Republicans tend to highlight the negatives of the other side rather than emphasize positive points. Healthcare beat reporters want to hear the story of how you’re going to help that little baby with medical needs, or the old lady who’s putting aside surgery because she has to pay her electric bill.

Unfortunately, Rep. Camp stuck with the point that the “45 million Americans who are uninsured” is really an overblown statistic. It’s worth mentioning, to be sure, but numbers won’t change this debate (otherwise, no one would be talking about socialized medicine anyway).

Instead, explaining how a Republican plan would enable people to not be tied to jobs they don’t like just because they want health insurance is a good way to go — something Rep. Camp brought up later in the discussion. You can also tie in the fact that a Democratic plan would hurt the economy, thus forcing people to stay in the very jobs they want to move away from.

It’s obviously true that conservatives need to spend a lot more time talking about the good that freer markets can do in health care. One often hears that "a free market isn’t working," but the health care market is anything but free. So there are certainly a number of actions that could be taken to instill greater adaptability and competition into the markets —  letting people buy health care across state lines, for one, and untying care from employment for another.

But let me put in a good word for negativity as well. It’s still quite important for conservatives to spend the time necessary to deconstruct liberal plans. Making sure people understand that those plans won’t work as promised — in fact can’t work as promised — serves the important function of making people skeptical of government-run health care, and makes it far tougher for those plans to be put in place. In some ways, really, it’s just about holding the line. Passing real, pro-market reforms is a good goal, but sometimes, it’s worthwhile to spend some effort making sure things don’t get any worse either.