[tsunamiSD]

Here’s how Donald Trump could replace Obamacare without courting disaster

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) is Trump’s pick to run Health and Human Services. And back in 2006, he was the co-author of a health care plan that could offer Republicans a way out. (And thanks to Brookings’ Stuart Butler for reminding me of its existence!)

The Trump administration could build on the Baldwin-Price legislation and the Section 1332 to let the states replace Obamacare. They could get rid of Obamacare’s essential benefits package so states had more flexibility in designing insurance, and they could lower the percentage of health costs that insurers have to cover to allow catastrophic care plans.
But they could also demand that states show they will cover more people at a lower cost than Obamacare in order to qualify under the program, and they could give grants to states to help them defray the cost of improving their health systems. (How would they pay for those grants? The same way they intend to pay for their tax cuts. Fiscal responsibility is only a constraint when Republicans want it to be.) As for the states that are happy with Obamacare, they could be left alone — if you like your health care system, you can keep it.