Last week, a pair of Republican lawmakers unveiled the world’s greatest health-care plan.
That’s not an endorsement, or even an opinion. It’s the title of the bill: H.R. 5284—The World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan Act of 2016.
Yet the proposal’s Trumpian moniker is not the most significant thing about it. This is an expansive bill, sponsored by a member of the House Republican leadership and a member of the health committee in the Senate, that seeks to enact conservative, market-oriented reforms to the insurance industry but does not—repeat, does not—repeal the Affordable Care Act. Instead, Representative Pete Sessions of Texas and Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana are proposing to allow people to leave the Obamacare exchanges and instead receive a $2,500 tax credit (plus $1,500 for each child) to purchase health insurance on the private market or put in a health-savings account.
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