Great Analysis of Health Care Counter Move

In the Kaiser Health News there is a great piece by a Cato analyst describing the strategy from the White House on their "openness" on allowing states the option to do their own thing. It provides added detail to what we said when it was announced a week ago.

As the article states:

Any waiver process that amends federal laws on a state-by-state basis -- such as proposal advanced in 2006 by the Brookings Institution and the Heritage Foundation and introduced as legislation by then-Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, and current Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D- N.M. -- will inherently favor big-government proposals over free-market reforms. ObamaCare goes the extra mile by only allowing approaches that are more coercive than itself.

States seeking more-coercive approaches would have an easy time meeting whatever performance metrics the federal government sets. They can simply ramp up the mandates and subsidies until coverage levels or health plan offerings meet the targets. Since a free market caters to consumers' preferences, which may deviate from the government’s performance metrics, it would be far more difficult to get free-market approaches approved or renewed.

Indeed, beware Presidents bearing gifts!